and my money to the honestest fellow I can find, and grow old amid a rosy race of Britons, springing from a stem reared after my own fashion.-There's news for you, my honest friend!

Grey. Alas! how little will he think I deserve his favour when he hears my account of her! And how can I shock a parent, with what too severely shocks even myself? [Aside.

Gov. What!-Silent, man?-Ha, ha, ha!-I can't but laugh to think how foolish you looked at the second year's end, when no allowance came-but that was my own contrivance; all done on purpose, my good old soul! and now it will come in a lump; there's the whole difference.-Well, and so my dame made her a pattern of housewifery, hey?-Od! I don't intend to touch another pickle or preserve that is not of my little Cicely's own doing; and I'll build her a dairy with every bowl and churn of silver!-Zounds, it shall be a finer sight than the Tower of London!—and we'll set up Dame Deborah's statue before it, like Queen Anne's in St. Paul's Church-yard!-But, why dostn't enjoy this discovery, man? Art afraid I shall take her from thee? Oh, never think of that; for thou shalt bless every pie she makes; aye, and taste it afterwards, old Pudding-sleeves.

Grey. Ah, sir! [Sighing.]

Gov. Hey? Zounds!-What dost mean? Sure my Cicely isn't dead!

Grey. No, not dead, sir!

Gov. She's very near it, then, I suppose?

Grey. No, sir.

Gov. No, sir? Then what the devil do you mean, by alarming me thus, with your "No sirs," after all? Grey. Alas! is there no greater evil?

Gov. None, that I know of; but your whole fraternity are not more like ravens in colour than note.Come, let us know what this mighty evil is?

Grey. For years did she increase in goodness as in beauty; the charm of every young heart, and the sole comfort of those old ones, to whom heaven and man seemed to have consigned her for ever.

Gov. Well, well, I had a little bird told me all this

Grey. About a twelvemonth ago, during a little absence of mine, a young man of fashion introduced himself into my house; and, my wife being void of suspicion, and the dear girl uninstructed in the ways of this bad world

Gov. The dog betrayed her!—And is this your care, you old-and that ignoramus, your wife!-Zounds! I am in such a fury; I want to know no more of her infamous conduct.-Od! I am strangely tempted to have you strangled this moment, as a just reward for your negligence; and so bury the secret with you.

Grey. It is as effectually buried already, sir-I love the dear unhappy girl too well, ever to tell her heaven gave her to such a father.

Gov. Yes, yes; you are better suited to the—I hope she pays for this severely!-You make her stand in a white sheet, to be pointed at by the whole village every Sunday, to be sure?

Grey. Alas, sir! she put it out of my power even to forgive her

Gov. Forgive her!-forgive her, truly!

Grey. By flying immediately from her only friend. Infirm and poor, I struggled with the joint evils till now; when, having collected enough to support me, I walked up in search of her ;-it was only yesterday I discovered her in a splendid coach, which I traced to her house.

Gov. A house? I shall run mad entirely !—A coach? -Why, dare the little brazen-face pretend to elegance, when I took such pains to quench every spark of gentility in her?

Grey. In the neighbourhood I discovered the name of her seducer; and in seeking him, met with you.Moderate your passion, sir-reflect! when age is frail, what can we expect in youth ?-Shall man desert humanity?

Gov. So, so, so!-Now I am to be tortured with your preaching.-I renounce the unworthy little slut. -I have no friend-no daughter-no any thing.-Od! I would sooner build an hospital for idiots, like Swift, and endow it with all my fortune, than bestow it on one who thus perverts reason. -Hark ye, sir-Forget the way to this house!-Forget you ever saw my face! -Would I had never seen your's!-For, if you dare to send her whining to me, I'll torment you with every plague, power, wealth, law, or even lawyers can set in motion. By heaven, I abjure the audacious little wretch for ever! and will sooner return to India and bury my gold with those from whom it was taken, than bestow a single shilling on her, when she loses her coach and her house!

Grey. [Contemptuously.] And I will sooner want a shilling, than suffer her to waste her youth in a state which will render her age an insupportable burthen !— Fear not, sir, ever seeing her or me again; for the bosom which reared, will joyfully receive her, nor further embitter her remaining days with the knowledge she was born the equal of her undoer; and deprived herself of all those blessings heaven only hid, never denied her. [Exit.

GOVERNOR alone.

Gov. Who would have a daughter?-Zounds! I am as hot as if I was in the black hole at Calcutta.-If Miss had only married a lout, from ignorance of her birth, I could have forgiyen it; but, her puppy being of fashion, the papers will get hold of it, and I shall be paragraphed into purgatory.-Fools can turn wits on these occasions; and, "A certain Governor and his

daughter," will set the grinners in motion from Piccadilly to Aldgate.-This insolent old fellow, too!-I need not wonder where she got her courage!-Not but I like his spirit.-Od! I like it much!-It proves his inno-What the devil did I drive him away for!Here, dogs!-run after that old man in black, and order him to return to me this moment.

cence.

Enter LORD Glenmore.

Lord G. And now, brother, I am ready for you. Gov. Yes; and now, brother, I have something else to mind, and my servants moreover[Exit. Lord G. What new whim can this troublesome mortal have taken into his head?-[A rapping at the door.] I am not at home, remember.

Who's with her?

-Miss Mortimer!—

MISS MORTIMER enters, with CECILIA in mourning. Miss Mor. Nay, as to that circumstance

here's my lord!

-Bless me,

Cec. My lord!-Good heavens, I shall sink into the earth!

Miss Mor. He can never guess at you-Recover, my dear creature!

Lord G. Is the lady indisposed, Miss Mortimer?

Miss Mor. Yes, my lord ;—that is, no-I don't know what I am saying.—She has been ill lately, and riding has a little overcome her; that's all.—[Aside to CECILIA.] Struggle to keep up, for heaven's sake and your own. Cec. Impossible! [LORD GLENMORE draws a hall-chair, in which she faints.]

Lord G. Warner! drops and water, in a moment. -How beautiful she is!-Her features are exquisitely fine!

Miss Mor. They are thought so, my lord.-Bless me! where can I have crammed my eau de luce!—Oh, I have it.

Lord G. Her pulse returns-she revives.

Cec. I beg your pardon, madam!--my lord, too!— I am shocked at having occasioned so much trouble. Miss Mor. Absurd to apologise for the infirmity of nature:-my lord, I do assure you, was quite

anxious

Lord G. The man must surely have lost every sense, who can see this lady, even when deprived of her's, without emotion :-but to me, the languor of illness had ever something peculiarly interesting.-[Aside.] I wonder who this elegant creature is! Her hand seems to tremble strangely.

Cec. Oh, madam!

Miss Mor. Silence and recollection alone can secure you from suspicion ;-I confess, I relied on his absence.

Re-enter the GOVERNOR.

Gov. He won't return, hey?-Od! I like the old Cambrian the better for it :-I have fired his Welch blood finely-Why, what a blockhead was I, not to go after him myself!-Methinks, I should like to know miss, when I meet her in her coach too.-Um-did he not tell me something of tracing the seducer into this house! [Stands in amazement a moment, then whistles.] Woodville's mistress, by every thing contrary!-Od, I shall seize the gipsy with redoubled satisfaction! But I must keep my own counsel, or my old beau of a brother will roast me to death on my system of education.-Hey! who has he got there? [CECILIA rises.] A pretty lass, faith!-Ah, there is the very thing I admire!--there is gentility, without the fantastical flourishes of fashion!-just the very air I hoped my minx would have had. [LORD GLENMORE, having led off CECILIA, returns.]

Lord G. I don't know how, but my inclination to