[_Exit Mrs. ~Motherly~._
_Jenny._ So! I told you how it was! you see she can't bear to leave us
together.
Count _Bas._ No matter, my dear: you know she has ask'd me to stay
supper: so when your papa and she are a-bed, Mrs. _Myrtilla_ will let
me into the house again; then you may steal into her chamber, and we'll
have a pretty sneaker of punch together.
_Myr._ Ay, ay, Madam, you may command me any thing.
_Jenny._ Well! that will be pure!
Count _Bas._ But you had best go to her alone, my life: it will look
better if I come after you.
_Jenny._ Ay, so it will: and to-morrow you know at the masquerade. And
then!----hey! _Oh, I'll have a husband! ay, marry_, &c.
[_Exit singing._
_Myr._ So, Sir! am not I very _commode_ to you?
Count _Bas._ Well, child, and don't you find your account in it? did
not I tell you we might still be of use to one another?
_Myr._ Well, but how stands your affair with Miss, in the main?
Count _Bas._ O she's mad for the masquerade! it drives like a nail, we
want nothing now but a parson, to clinch it. Did not your aunt say she
could get one at a short warning?
_Myr._ Yes, yes, my Lord _Townly_'s chaplain is her cousin, you know;
he'll do your business and mine, at the same time.
Count _Bas._ O! it's true! but where shall we appoint him?
_Myr._ Why, you know my Lady _Townly_'s house is always open to the
masques upon a ball-night, before they go to the _Hay-market_.
Count _Bas._ Good.
_Myr._ Now the Doctor purposes, we should all come thither in our
habits, and when the rooms are full, we may steal up into his chamber,
he says, and there----crack----he'll give us all canonical commission
to go to bed together.
Count _Bas._ Admirable! Well, the devil fetch me, if I shall not be
heartily glad to see thee well settled, child.
_Myr._ And may the black gentleman tuck me under his arm at the same
time, if I shall not think myself oblig'd to you, as long as I live.
Count _Bas._ One kiss for old acquaintance sake----I'gad I shall want
to be busy again!
_Myr._ O you'll have one shortly will find you employment: but I must
run to my squire.
Count _Bas._ And I to the ladies----so your humble servant, sweet Mrs.
_Wronghead_.
_Myr._ Yours, as in duty bound, most noble Count _Basset_.
[_Exit ~Myr~._
Count _Bas._ Why ay! Count! That title has been of some use to me
indeed! not that I have any more pretence to it, than I have to a
blue ribband. Yet, I have made a pretty considerable figure in life
with it: I have loll'd in my own chariot, dealt at assemblies, din'd
with Ambassadors, and made one at quadrille, with the first women of
quality----But----_Tempora mutantur_----since that damn'd squadron at
_White_'s have left me out of their last secret, I am reduced to trade
upon my own stock of industry, and make my last push upon a wife: if my
card comes up right (which I think can't fail) I shall once more cut a
figure, and cock my hat in the face of the best of them! for since our
modern men of fortune are grown wise enough to be sharpers: I think
sharpers are fools that don't take up the airs of men of quality.
[_Exit._
+ACT+ V. +SCENE+ I.
+SCENE+, _Lord_ Townly's _House_.
_Enter ~Manly~ and Lady ~Grace~._
_Man._ There's something, Madam, hangs upon your mind, to-day: is it
unfit to trust me with it?
Lady _Grace._ Since you will know----my sister then----unhappy woman!
_Man._ What of her?
Lady _Grace._ I fear is on the brink of ruin!
_Man._ I am sorry for it----what has happened?
Lady _Grace._ Nothing so very new! but the continual repetition of it,
has at last rais'd my brother to an intemperance that I tremble at.
_Man._ Have they had any words upon it?
Lady _Grace._ He has not seen her since yesterday.
_Man._ What, not at home all night!
Lady _Grace._ About five this morning in she came! but with such looks,
and such an equipage of misfortunes at her heels----what can become of
her?
_Man._ Has not my lord seen her, say you?
Lady _Grace._ No! he chang'd his bed last night----I sat with him alone
till twelve, in expectation of her: but when the clock had struck, he
started from his chair, and grew incens'd to that degree, that had I
not, almost on my knees, dissuaded him, he had ordered the doors that
instant to have been locked against her.
_Man._ How terrible is his situation? when the most justifiable
severities he can use against her, are liable to be the mirth of all
the dissolute card-tables in town!
Lady _Grace._ 'Tis that, I know, has made him bear so long: but you
that feel for him, Mr. _Manly_, will assist him to support his honour,
and, if possible, preserve his quiet! therefore I beg you don't leave
the house, 'till one or both of them can be wrought to better temper.
_Man._ How amiable is this concern, in you!
Lady _Grace._ For heaven's sake don't mind me, but think of something
to preserve us all.
_Man._ I shall not take the merit of obeying your commands, Madam, to
serve my Lord----but pray, Madam, let me into all that has past, since
yesternight.
Lady _Grace._ When my intreaties had prevail'd upon my Lord, not to
make a story for the town, by so public a violence, as shutting her at
once out of his doors; he order'd the next apartment to my lady's to be
made ready for him----while that was doing----I try'd by all the little
arts I was mistress of, to amuse him into temper; in short, a silent
grief was all I could reduce him to----on this, we took our leaves,
and parted to our repose: what his was, I imagine by my own: for I
ne'er clos'd my eyes. About five, as I told you, I heard my lady at the
door; so I slipt on a gown, and sat almost an hour with her in her own
chamber.
_Man._ What said she, when she did not find my Lord there?
Lady _Grace._ O! so far from being shock'd or alarm'd at it; that she
blest the occasion! and said that in her condition, the chat of a
female friend was far preferable to the best husband's company in the
world.
_Man._ Where has she spirits to support so much insensibility?
Lady _Grace._ Nay! it's incredible! for though she had lost every
shilling she had in the world, and stretch'd her credit ev'n to
breaking; she rallied her own follies with such vivacity, and painted
the penance, she knows she must undergo for them, in such ridiculous
lights, that had not my concern for a brother been too strong for her
wit, she had a'most disarm'd my anger.
_Man._ Her mind may have another cast by this time: the most flagrant
dispositions have their hours of anguish; which their pride conceals
from company; but pray, Madam, how could she avoid coming down to dine?
Lady _Grace._ O! she took care of that before she went to bed; by
ordering her woman, whenever she was ask'd for, to say, she was not
well.
_Man._ You have seen her since she was up, I presume?
Lady _Grace._ Up! I question whether she be awake yet.
_Man._ Terrible! What a figure does she make now! That nature should
throw away so much beauty upon a creature, to make such a slatternly
use of it!
Lady _Grace._ O fy! there is not a more elegant beauty in town, when
she's drest.
_Man._ In my eye, Madam, she that's early drest, has ten times her
elegance.
Lady _Grace._ But she won't be long now, I believe: for I think I see
her chocolate going up----Mrs. _Trusty_,--a hem!
_Mrs. ~Trusty~ comes to the door._
_Man._ [_Aside._] Five o'clock in the afternoon, for a lady of
quality's breakfast, is an elegant hour indeed! which to shew her more
polite way of living too, I presume, she eats in her bed.
Lady _Grace._ [_To Mrs. ~Trusty~._] And when she is up, I would be glad
she would let me come to her toilet--That's all, Mrs. _Trusty_.
_Trusty._ I will be sure to let her ladyship know, Madam.
[_Exit Mrs. ~Trusty~._
_Enter a Servant._
_Serv._ Sir _Francis Wronghead_, Sir, desires to speak with you.
_Man._ He comes unseasonably----what shall I do with him!
Lady _Grace._ O see him by all means, we shall have time enough; in the
mean while I'll step in, and have an eye upon my brother. Nay, nay,
don't mind me--have business.----
_Man._ You must be obey'd----
[_Retreating while Lady Grace goes out._