Lord D. Now there is a person, in whose radiant eyes, and sparkling decorums, the majesty of imperial cupid sits in state, and dispenses innocuous glories with the careless profusion of a city feast, or the dazzling splendour of a courtly gala. There is a person

Miss Her. Your lordship means Miss Manly?—Yes, indeed, she is a fine young woman enough—

Lord D. Miss Manly! Miss Manly, madam, is as a scintillating link to the gorgeous orb of day, compared to the ineffable divinity of my prostrate adoration. Miss Her. Whom can your lordship mean?

Lord D. Mean! whom should I mean-whom must I mean, whom can I mean, but the celestial phoenix of her sex, the divine Miss Herbert ?

Miss Her. Me, my lord!-Good heaven!-I am so confused all on a sudden-Did your lordship say me? Lord D. Yes, yes, your adorable, everlasting self.

Miss Her. If your lordship really entertains-if your lordship has, indeed, done me the honour to have conceived a passion

Lord D. A passion!-A flame-a conflagration-a volcano!

Miss Her. Nay now, my lord, I can no longer doubt the plain sincerity of your professions-but as it is a fixed rule with me, rather to follow than to lead, in events of this awful importance, I should wish to avoid any further communication with a person of your lordship's dangerous eloquence, till the proper sanction of my relations has been previously obtained; my aunt would be too happy to receive any proposals of your lordship's; till then permit me to take my leave.-Successful, even beyond my hopes. [Aside.] [Exit.

Lord D. Hah, hah! Now this I call being in luck— just as one had lost scent in one quarter, to have a nobler game started in another.-Now gad take me, 'tis very odd, but what a blunderbuss I am at a speech-I mean in the love way-for on other subjects I can de

liver myself with a becoming intelligibility enough; but we higher order of beings, that have sense enough never to be more than merely artificial lovers, as we never understand the real orthodox gibberish of the passion, so when we once get to talk upon it, we never know when to stop.-Now that scintillating linkgorgeous orb-conflagration, and volcano, were not at all to my liking, but what could I do? I must say something but above all, what had I to do with an allusion to a city feast? What has a city feast to do among the delicacies of a lover's commons? Well, I must read for it at least till I am married; and then, indeed, it will be full time to discard both the passion and the language of it in amicable indifference together. Well, I will lose no time in preparing my proposals.

Scene II.-Mr. Manly's.

Enter MISS MANLY.

[Exit.

Miss Man. Could I have suspected Welford of infidelity! Happy, happy Miss Wingrove! So vanish all my hopes!

Enter YOUNG MANLY.

Y. Man. Emma, what means this agitation? Whence these tears? Is my mother well? Where is my father? -Speak, dear Emma.

Enter MRS. MANLY.

Mrs. Man. Oh, Harry, what uneasiness has your absence occasioned-why will you pay so little attention to your family?

Y. Man. Dear madam, I deserve more reprehension than I ever meet with; yet let me intreat your present forbearance. My heart, since last I saw you, has been torn by such a variety of anguish, that I have not

been master of my conduct.-But why is Emma thus uneasy?

Mrs. Man. Dear girl, I believe her uneasiness results from mine.-Could you have thought it, Harry? I scarce know how to tell you; but your father has seduced Miss Wingrove from her friends, where he has placed her I know not-but

Y. Man. Thank heaven! then I have been truly informed, and she is with my father.

Mrs. Man. Thank heaven, Henry! Do you thank heaven that your father wrongs me? Your behaviour shocks me, Harry-it is even worse than his.

Y. Man. Dear mother, don't indulge such suspicions. My father steal Miss Wingrove from her friends!-No, no, indeed he did not: that she is with him, truly rejoices me.

is

Enter OLD MANLY,

Y. Mun. Dear sir, where is Miss Wingrove? Where my lovely Julia? Will she permit me to behold her face again?-Yet how dare I hope it.

O. Man. Ought I to permit you to behold my face again, sir? how dare you hope that? Instead of asking impertinent questions about what does not concern you, have the goodness to account for your own conduct, sir. You leave your family-fill them with apprehensions for your safety, and at your return, instead of meeting us with proper submission, you begin by hectoring your poor innocent father, and bullying him with a long string of saucy inquiries-" Where is Miss Wingrove? Where is my Julia?" [Mimicking him.] What have you to do with Miss Wingrove? Who made her your Julia?

Mrs. Man. Who, indeed! She is differently disposed of.

Y. Man. Dear sir, how could I possibly imagine, that what I said would give the slightest ground of

offence? The Larrons assured me she went away with

you.

Mrs. Man. There, Mr. Manly, there! I am jealous now without a cause! I have no foundation for my suspicions!.

Miss Man. Dear madam-dear sir!-hear me one moment: I can too certainly assure you where Miss Wingrove is.

Mrs. Man. Where, Emma, where? Y. Man. Dear, dear Emma, tell me instantly.

O. Man. Aye, let us hear childlet us hear it.

all at once.

Miss Man. The report we heard, madam, was too well founded: Miss Wingrove is indeed with Mr. Welford.

Y. Manly. With Welford!

Mrs. Man. Ridiculous child!-mere jealous apprehension.

Y. Man. Madam!

Mrs. Man. Ask your father, whose suspicions are the wildest, her's or mine-he can set you right at once, if he chooses it. But I'll stay no longer to endure such treatment.

0. Man. Don't, my dear, don't.

Mrs. Man. Your indifference, Mr. Manly, is even more injurious than your infidelity.

[Exit.

O. Man. Before I go to appease your mother, who is as absurd as you are profligate, let me caution you, young man, how you practise such another frolic in a hurry the wicked story that you have so ingeniously trumped up about my being at such a place as Larron's this excellent joke, I say, sir, which owes all its genius to its being a falsehood, and its wit to the certain mischief it was sure to produce in your family, won't be passed over unpunished, I assure you. Have you no duty ?—no regard for truth? But it was ever thus

with you, you prodigal! The best example I have ever been able to set you, either for truth or modesty, never produced the slightest effect upon your vile, impenetrable nature; and the mildest language, you rascal! was always thrown away upon you. [Retires.

Y. Man. Dear Emma, unravel, if you can, this knot of perplexities: my father answers me with anger, my mother with tears, and you, my dear sister, start an idea, which is one of the last that would have entered my imagination; yet, being once presented, love will not suffer it to repose in idleness-Tell me, my EmmaCan Julia be with Welford? Can she-can he-can both be so inconstant?

Miss Man. Oh, Harry! why did I mention it-this may be the source of fresh affliction. Think, if it is so, that I endure enough, and do not increase my misery— you know my fears.

Y. Man. Lay them aside, dear Emma! be assured I shall act with moderation-I know I shall. Oh, Julia! -but you must tell me all you know respecting her and the villain-I will not name him that has stolen

her from me. Come to my study, Emma; nay, dry your eyes-you shall see what an example of patience I will exhibit-I shall quarrel with no one but myself; for in myself alone is the foundation of all the miseries I am exposed to. [Exeunt YOUNG MANLY and EMMA.

Enter SERVANT to OLD MANLY.

Serv. Miss Herbert, sir, desires to know if she can have the pleasure of half a minute's conversation with

you.

Q. Man. Show her in.

[Exit SERVANT.

Enter MISS HERBERT.

O. Manly. This is indeed a kindness, my dear Miss Herbert; your visits are valuable in proportion to their rarity, like winter suns--or-or-no-like