Enter Mifs NEVILLE. Mifs HARDCASTLE. Is I'm glad you're come, Neville, my dear. Tell me, Conftance, how do I look this evening? there any thing whimfical about me? Is it one of my well looking days, child? am I in face today? Mifs NEVILLE. Perfectly, my dear. Yet now I look again-blefs me!-fure no accident has happened among the canary birds or the gold fishes. Has your brother or the cat been medling? or has the last novel been too moving? Mifs HARDCASTLE. No; nothing of all this. I have been threatened -I can fcarce get it out-I have been threatened with a lover. And his name Mifs NEVILLE. Mifs HARDCASTLE. Is Marlow. Mifs NEVILLE. Indeed! Mifs HARDCASTLE. The fon of Sir Charles Marlow. Mifs NEVILLE. As I live, the most intimate friend of Mr. Hast ings, my admirer. They are never afunder. I believe believe you must have seen him when we lived in town. Never. Mifs HARDCASTLE. Mifs NEVILLE, He's a very fingular character, I affure you. Among women of reputation and virtue, he is the modestest man alive; but his acquaintance give him different character among creatures of another ftamp: you understand me. a very Mifs HARDCASTLE. An odd character, indeed. I fhall never be able to manage him. What shall I do? Pfhaw, think no more of him, but trust to occurrences for fuccefs, But how goes on your own affair, my dear? has my mother been courting you for my brother Tony, as ufual? Mifs NEVILLE. I have just come from one of our agreeable têtea-têtes. She has been saying a hundred tender things, and fetting off her pretty monfter as the very pink of perfection. Mifs HARDCASTLE. And her partiality is fuch, that she actually thinks him fo. A fortune like yours is no fmall temptation. Befides, as fhe has the fole management of it, I'm not furprized to fee her unwilling to let it go out of the family. VOL. II. L Mifs Mifs NEVILLE. A fortune like mine, which chiefly confifts in jewels, is no fuch mighty temptation. But at any rate if my dear Haftings be but conftant, I make no doubt to be too hard for her at laft. However, I let her fuppofe that I am in love with her fon, and fhe never once dreams that my affections are fixed upon another. Mifs HARDCASTLE. My good brother holds out ftoutly. I could almoft love him for hating you fo. Mifs NEVILLE. It is a good-natured creature at bottom, and I'm fure would wish to fee me married to any body but himself. But my aunt's bell rings for our afternoon's walk round the improvements. Allons! Courage is neceffary as our affairs are critical. Mifs HARDCASTLE. "Would it were bed time and all were well." [Exeunt. SCENE, an Ale-houfe Room. Several fhabby fellows, with punch and tobacco. TONY at the Head of the Table, a little higher than the reft: a mallet in his hand. OMNES. Hurrea! hurrea! hurrea! bravo! FIRST FELLOW. Now gentlemen, filence for a fong. The 'fquire is going to knock himself down for a song. OMNES. OMNES. Aye, a fong, a fong! I TONY. Then I'll fing you, gentlemen, a fong I made upon this ale-houfe, the Three Pigeons. S ON G. Let fchool-mafters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonfenfe, and learning; Good liquor, I ftoutly maintain, Gives genus a better difcerning. Let them brag of their heathenish gods, Their Lethes, their Styxes, and Stygians; Their qui's, and their quæ's, and their quod's, They're all but a parcel of pigeons, Toroddle, toroddle, toroll. When methodist preachers come down, A preaching that drinking is finful, wager the rafcals a crown, I'll They always preach best with a skinful. But when you come down with your pence, For a flice of their fcurvy religion, I'll leave it to all men of fenfe, But you my good friend are the pigeon, Toroddle, toroddle, toroll. Then come put the jorum about, And let us be merry and clever, Our hearts and our liquors are flout, Let fome cry up woodcock or hare, Your bustards, your ducks, and your widgeons; But of all the birds in the air, Here's a health to the three jolly pigeons. Bravo, bravo! Toroddle, toroddle, toroll. OMNES. FIRST FELLOW. The 'fquire has got spunk in him. SECOND FELLOW. I loves to hear him fing, bekeays he never gives us nothing that's low. THIRD FELLOW. O damn any thing that's low, I cannot bear it. FOURTH FELLOW. The genteel thing is the genteel thing at any time. If fo be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly. THIRD FELLOW. I like the maxum of it, master Muggins. What, though I am obligated to dance a bear, a man may be a gentleman for all that. May this be my poifon if my bear ever dances but to the very genteelest of "Water Parted," or "the minuet in Ari tunes. "adne." SECOND FELLOW. What a pity it is the 'fquire is not come to his own. It would be well for all the publicans within ten miles round of him, ΤΟΝΥ, |