his other qualities he adds that of the most paffionate regard for you. Mifs RICHLAND. Amazement!-No more of this, I beg you, Sir. HONEYWOOD. I fee your confufion, madam, and know how to interpret it. And, fince I fo plainly read the language of your heart, [fhall I make my friend happy, by communicating your fentiments? By no means. Mifs RICHLAND. HONEYWOOD. Excufe me; I muft; I know you defire it. Mifs RICHLAND. Mr. Honeywood, let me tell you, that you wrong my fentiments and yourself. When I firft applied to your friendship, I expected advice and affiftance; but, now, Sir, I fee that it is vain to expect happiness from him, who has been fo bad an economist of his own; and that I must disclaim his friendship' who ceases to be a friend to himself. HONEYWOOD. [Exit. How is this! fhe has confeffed fhe loved him, and yet fhe feemed to part in difpleafure. Can I have done any thing to reproach myfelf with? No: I believe not yet, after all, these things fhould not be done by a third perfon; I fhould have spread her confufion. My friendship carried me a little too far. Enter Enter CROAKER, with the Letter in his Hand, and Mrs. CROAKER. Mrs. CROAKER. Ha ha ha! And fo, my dear, it's your fupreme wish that I fhould be quite wretched upon this occafion? ha! ha! CROAKER, mimicking. Ha ha ha! And fo, my dear, it's your fupreme pleasure to give me no better confolation? Mrs. CROAKER. Pofitively, my dear; what is this incendiary stuff and trumpery to me? our houfe may travel through the air like the houfe of Loretto, for aught I care, if I am to be miferable in it. CROAKER. Would to heaven it were converted into an house of correction for your benefit. Have we not every thing to alarm us? Perhaps, this very moment the tragedy is beginning. Mrs. CROAKER. Then let us reserve our distress till the rifing of the curtain, or give them the money they want, and have done with them. CROAKER. Give them my money!-And pray, what right have they to my money? Mrs. CROAKER. And pray, what right then have you to my good humour ? CROAKER. CROAKER. wife. And fo your good humour advises me to part with my money? Why then, to tell your good humour a piece of my mind, I'd fooner part with my Here's Mr. Honeywood, fee what he'll fay to it. My dear Honeywood, look at this incendiary letter dropped at my door. It will freeze you with terror; and yet lovey here can read it—can read it, and laugh. Mrs. CROAKER. Yes, and fo will Mr. Honeywood. CROAKER. If he does, I'll fuffer to be hanged the next minute in the rogue's place, that's all. Mrs. CROAKER. Speak, Mr. Honeywood; is there any thing more foolish than my husband's fright upon this occafion? HONEYWOOD. It would not become me to decide, madam; but doubtless, the greatness of his terrors, now, will but invite them to renew their villainy another time. Mrs. CROAKER. I told you, he'd be of my opinion. How, Sir! do you maintain that I fhould lie down under fuch an injury, and fhew, neither by my tears, or complaints, that I have fomething of the fpirit of a man in me? Ho HONEYWOOD. Pardon me, Sir. You ought to make the loudeft complaints, if you defire redrefs. The furest way to have redress, is to be earnest in the pursuit of What is the beft, madam, few can say? but I'll maintain it to be a very wife way. CROAKER. But we're talking of the best. Surely the best way is to face the enemy in the field, and not wait till he plunders us in our very bed-chamber. HONEYWOOD. Why, Sir, as to the beft, that-that's a very wife way too. Mrs. CROAKER. to dou But can any thing be more abfurd, than t ble our diftreffes by our apprehenfions, and put it in the power of every low fellow, that can fcrawl ten words of wretched fpelling, to torment us? HONEYWOOD. Without doubt, nothing more abfurd. CROAKER. How! would it not be more abfurd to defpife the rattle till we are bit by the fnake? Ho Heavens forbid, madam! No, fure, no reasoning can be more juft than yours. We ought certainly to despise malice if we cannot oppose it, and not make the incendiary's pen as fatal to our repofe as the highwayman's pistol. Certainly, in two oppofite opinions, if one be perfectly reasonable, the other can't be perfectly right. HONEYWOOD. And why may not both be right, madam? Mr. Croaker in earneftly feeking redress, waiting the event with good humour? and you in Pray let me fee |