the cause of your taking it so much to heart, Mr. Lovemore, was it?

Love. A mere contrivance to palliate his guilt. Po! Po! I won't stay a moment longer among ye. I'll go into another room to avoid ye all. [Opens the door.] Hell and destruction!—what fiend is conjured up here? Zoons! let me make my escape out of the house.

[Runs to the opposite door. Mrs. Love. I'll secure this door; you must not go, my dear.

Love. 'Sdeath, madam, let me pass!

Mrs. Love. Nay, you shall stay: I want to introduce an acquaintance of mine to you.

Love. I desire, madam

Enter MRS. Bellmour.

Mrs. Bell. My lord, my Lord Etheridge; I am heartily glad to see your lordship.

[Taking hold of him.

Mrs. Love. Do, my dear, let me introduce this lady

[Turning him to her.

to you.
Love. Here's the devil and all to do!

[Aside. Mrs. Bell. My lord, this is the most fortunate en

counter

Love. I wish I was fifty miles off.

[Aside. Mrs. Love. Mrs. Bellmour, give me leave to introduce Mr. Lovemore to you. [Turning him to her. Mrs. Bell. No, my dear ma'am, let me introduce Lord Etheridge to you. [Pulling him.] My lord

Sir Bril. In the name of wonder, what is all this?

Sir Bash. Wounds! is this another of his intrigues blown up?

Mrs. Love. My dear ma'am, you are mistaken: this is my husband.

Mrs. Bell. Pardon me, ma'am, 'tis my Lord Etheridge.

Mrs. Love. My dear, how can you be so ill-bred

in your own house?-Mrs. Bellmour,-this is Mr. Lovemore.

Love. Are you going to toss me in a blanket, madam? -call up the rest of your people, if you are.

Mrs. Bell. Pshaw! pr'ythee now, my lord, leave off your humours. Mrs. Lovemore, this is my Lord Etheridge, a lover of mine, who has made proposals of marriage to me. Come, come, you shall have a wife: I will take compassion on you.

Love. D-nation! I can't stand it.

[Aside.

Mrs. Bell. Come, cheer up, my lord: what the deuce, your dress is altered! what's become of the star and ribband? And so the gay, the florid, the magnifique Lord Etheridge dwindles down into plain Mr. Lovemore, the married man!~ Mr. Lovemore, your most obedient, very humble servant, sir.

Love. I can't bear to feel myself in so ridiculous a situation.

[Aside. Sir Bash. He has been passing himself for a lord, has he?

Mrs. Bell. I beg my compliments to your friend Mrs. Loveit: I am much obliged to you both for your very honourable designs. [Courtesying to him. Love. I was never so ashamed in all my life! [Aside. Sir Bril. So, so, so, all his pains were to hide the star from me. This discovery is a perfect cordial to my

dejected spirits.

Mrs. Bell. Mrs. Lovemore, I cannot sufficiently acknowledge the providence that directed you to pay me a visit, and I shall henceforth consider you as my deliverer.

Love. Zoons! It was she that fainted away in the closet, and be d-n'd to her jealousy. [Aside. Sir Bril. My lord, [Advances to him.] My lord, my Lord Etheridge, as the man says in the play, "Your lordship's right welcome back to Denmark."

VOL. II.

Love. Now he comes upon me.-O! I'm in a fine situation!

[Aside. Sir Bril. My lord, I hope that ugly pain in your lordship's side is abated.

Love. Absurd, and ridiculous!

[Aside. Sir Bril. There is nothing forming there, I hope, my lord.

Love. D-nation! I can't bear all this-I won't stay to be teased by any of you-I'll go to the company in the card room. [Goes to the door in the back scene.]— Here is another fiend! I am beset with them.

Enter LADY CONSTANT.

No way for an escape

?

[Attempts both stage doors, and is prevented. Lady Con. I have lost every rubber I play'd forquite broke; do, Mr. Lovemore, lend me another hundred.

Love. I would give a hundred you were all in Nova Scotia.

Lady Con. Mrs. Lovemore, let me tell you, you are married to the falsest man; he has deceived me strangely.

Mrs. Love. I begin to feel for him, and to pity his

uneasiness.

Mrs. Bell. Never talk of pity; let him be probed to the quick.

Sir Bash. The case is pretty plain, I think, now, Sir Brilliant.

Sir Bril. Pretty plain, upon my soul! Ha! ha!

Love. I'll turn the tables upon Sir Bashful, for all this-[Takes SIR BASHFUL'S letter out of his pocket.]— where is the mighty harm now in this letter?

Sir Bash. Where's the harm?-Ha! ha! ha!

Love. [Reads.] I cannot, my dearest life, any longer behold

Sir Bash. Shame and confusion! I am undone.

[Aside.

Love. Hear this, Sir Bashful-I cannot, my dearest life, any longer behold the manifold vexations, of which, through a false prejudice, I am myself the occasion. Sir Bash. 'Sdeath! I'll hear no more of it.

[Snatches at the letter.

Love. No, sir; I resign it here, where it was directed. Lady Con. For heaven's sake let us see- -It is his hand, sure enough.

Love. Yes, madam, and those are his sentiments.

Sir Bash. I can't look any body in the face.

All. Ha! ha!

Sir Bril. So, so, so! he has been in love with his wife all this time, has he! Sir Bashful, will you go and see the new comedy with me? Lovemore, pray now don't you think it a base thing to invade the happiness of a friend? or to do him & clandestine wrong? or to injure him with the woman he loves?

Love. To cut the matter short with you, sir, we are both villains.

Sir Bril. Villains!

Love. Ay, both! we are pretty fellows indeed!

Mrs. Bell. I am glad to find you are awakened to a sense of your error.

Love. I am, madam, and am frank enough to own it. I am above attempting to disguise my feelings, when I am conscious they are on the side of truth and honour. With sincere remorse I ask your pardon.— I should ask pardon of my Lady Constant too, but the truth is, Sir Bashful threw the whole affair in my way; and when a husband will be ashamed of loving a valuable woman, he must not be surprised, if other people take her case into consideration, and love her for him.

Sir Bril. Why, faith, that does in some sort apologize for him.

Sir Bash. Sir Bashful! Sir Bashful! thou art ruined!

[Aside. Mrs. Kell. Well, sir, upon certain terms, I don't know but I may sign and seal your pardon.

Love. Terms!-what terms?

Mrs Eell. That you make due expiation of your guilt to that lady. [Pointing to MRS. LOVEMORE. Love. That lady, ma'am!-That lady has no reason to complain

Mrs. Love. No reason to complain, Mr. Lovemore? Love. No, madam, none; for whatever may have been my imprudences, they have had their source in your conduct.

Mrs. Love. In my conduct, sir!

Love. In your conduct:-I here declare before this company, and I am above palliating the matter; I here declare, that no man in England could be better inclined to domestic happiness, if you, madam, on your part, had been willing to make home agreeable.

Mrs. Love. There, I confess, he touches me. [Aside. Love. You could take pains enough before marriage; you could put forth all your charms; practise all your arts; for ever changing; running an eternal round of variety, to win my affections: but when you had won them, you did not think them worth your keeping never dressed, pensive, silent, melancholy; and the only entertainment in my house was the dear pleasure of a dull conjugal tete-a-tete; and all this insipidity, because you think the sole merit of a wife consists in her virtue a fine way of amusing a husband, truly! Sir Bril. Upon my soul, and so it is [Laughing.

Mrs. Love. Sir, I must own there is too much truth in what you say. This lady has opened my eyes, and convinced me there was a mistake in my former conduct.

Love. Come, come, you need say no more. I forgive you; I forgive,