ACT THE SECOND

Scene, CROAKER'S HOUSE.

Miss Richland, Garnet.

Miss Richland. Olivia not his sister? Olivia not Leontine's sister? You amaze me!

Garnet. No more his sister than I am; I had it all from his own servant; I can get anything from that quarter.

Miss Richland. But how? Tell me again, Garnet. Garnet. Why, madam, as I told you before, instead of going to Lyons to bring home his sister, who has been there with her aunt these ten years, he never went further than Paris; there he saw and fell in love with this young lady by the bye, of a prodigious family.

Miss Richland. And brought her home to my guardian as his daughter?

Garnet. Yes, and his daughter she will be. If he don't consent to their marriage, they talk of trying what a Scotch parson can do.

me

Miss Richland. Well, I own they have deceived And so demurely as Olivia carried it too!Would you believe it, Garnet, I told her all my secrets; and yet the sly cheat concealed all this from me?

Garnet. And, upon my word, madam, I don't much blame her; she was loath to trust one with her secrets that was so very bad at keeping her own.

Miss Richland. But, to add to their deceit, the young gentleman, it seems, pretends to make me serious proposals. My guardian and he are to be here presently,

to open the affair in form. You know I am to lose half my fortune if I refuse him.

Garnet. Yet, what can you do? For being, as you are, in love with Mr. Honeywood, madam —

Miss Richland. How! idiot, what do you mean? In love with Mr. Honeywood! Is this to provoke me? Garnet. That is, madam, in friendship with him ; I meant nothing more than friendship, as I hope to be married; nothing more.

Miss Richland. Well, no more of this. As to my guardian and his son, they shall find me prepared to receive them; I'm resolved to accept their proposal with seeming pleasure, to mortify them by compliance, and so throw the refusal at last upon them.

Garnet. Delicious! and that will secure your whole fortune to yourself. Well, who could have thought so innocent a face could cover so much cuteness!

Miss Richland. Why, girl, I only oppose my prudence to their cunning,1 and practise a lesson they have taught me against themselves.

Garnet. Then you're likely not long to want employment, for here they come, and in close conference.

Enter Croaker and Leontine.

Leontine. Excuse me, sir, if I seem to hesitate upon the point of putting to the lady so important a ques

tion.

1 oppose my prudence to their cunning: Goldsmith had evidently been reading The Merchant of Venice when writing the second act of this play. Compare with the above, "I do oppose my patience to his fury" (Act IV, Sc. 1). Note also the similarity between Miss Richland's next words and Shylock's, “The villainy you teach me I will execute" (Act III, Sc. 1), and the resemblance between the succeeding comedy of Croaker and his son Leontine and the comic appeals of Old Gobbo and his son Launcelot before Bassanio (Act II, Sc. 2).

Croaker. Lord! good sir, moderate your fears; you 're so plaguy shy, that one would think you had changed sexes. I tell you we must have the half or the whole. Come, let me see with what spirit you begin. Well, why don't you? Eh! What? Well then I must, it seems-Miss Richland, my dear, I believe you guess at our business; an affair which my son here comes to open, that nearly concerns your happiness.

Miss Richland. Sir, I should be ungrateful not to be pleased with anything that comes recommended by you.

Croaker. How, boy, could you desire a finer opening? Why don't you begin, I say? (To Leontine.) Leontine. 'Tis true, madam, my father, madam, has some intentions-hem of explaining an affair — which — himself — can best explain, madam.

Croaker. Yes, my dear; it comes entirely from my son; it's all a request of his own, madam. And I will permit him to make the best of it.

Leontine. The whole affair is only this, madam ; my father has a proposal to make which he insists none but himself shall deliver.

Croaker. My mind misgives me, the fellow will never be brought on. (Aside.) In short, madam, you see before you one that loves you; one whose whole happiness is all in you.

Miss Richland. I never had any doubts of your regard, sir; and I hope you can have none of my duty.

Croaker. That's not the thing, my little sweeting; my love! No, no, another-guess lover1 than I; there

;

1 another-guess lover: A lover of another sort. "Then we should have things done in another-guess manner." The Vicar of

he stands, madam; his very looks declare the force of his passion! Call up a look, you dog But then, had you seen him, as I have, weeping, speaking soliloquies and blank verse, sometimes melancholy, and sometimes absent

Miss Richland. I fear, sir, he's absent now; or such a declaration would have come most properly from himself.

Croaker. Himself, Madam! He would die before he could make such a confession; and if he had not a channel for his passion through me, it would ere now have drowned his understanding.

Miss Richland. I must grant, sir, there are attractions in modest diffidence above the force of words. A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity.

Croaker. Madam, he has forgot to speak any other language; silence is become his mother-tongue.

Miss Richland. And it must be confessed, sir, it speaks very powerfully in his favor. And yet I shall be thought too forward in making such a confession; shan't I, Mr. Leontine?

Leontine. Confusion! my reserve will undo me. But, if modesty attracts her, impudence may disgust her. I'll try. (Aside.) - Don't imagine from my silence, madam, that I want a due sense of the honor and happiness intended me. My father, madam, tells me your humble servant is not totally indifferent to you. He admires you; I adore you; and when we come together, upon my soul, I believe we shall be the happiest couple in all St. James's.1

Wakefield, chap. xix. See Browning's The Ring and the Book, IV, 1498.

1 in all St. James's: The fashionable district of London, St. James's Parish, is referred to.

Miss Richland. If I could flatter myself you thought as you speak, sir

Leontine. Doubt my sincerity, madam? By your dear self I swear! Ask the brave if they desire glory! ask cowards if they covet safety

Croaker. Well, well, no more questions about it. Leontine. Ask the sick if they long for health; ask misers if they love money, ask

Croaker. Ask a fool if he can talk nonsense! What's come over the boy? What signifies asking, when there's not a soul to give you an answer? If you would ask to the purpose, ask this lady's consent to make you happy.

Miss Richland. Why, indeed, sir, his uncommon ardor almost compels me, forces me to comply. And yet I'm afraid he'll despise a conquest gained with too much ease; won't you, Mr. Leontine ?

Leontine. Confusion! (Aside.) Oh, by no means, madam, by no means. And yet, madam, you talked of force. There is nothing I would avoid so much as compulsion in a thing of this kind. No, madam, I will still be generous, and leave you at liberty to refuse.

Croaker. But I tell you, sir, the lady is not at liberty. It's a match. You see she says nothing. Silence gives consent.

Leontine. But, sir, she talked of force. Consider, sir, the cruelty of constraining her inclinations.

Croaker. But I say there's no cruelty. Don't you know, blockhead, that girls have always a roundabout way of saying yes before company? So get you both gone together into the next room, and hang him that interrupts the tender explanation. Get you gone, I say: ; I'll not hear a word.