_Another Apartment._
_Enter LADY EMILY._
_Lady E._ Oh, lud! I could hardly tremble more at opening this man's
apartment, were there a possibility of finding him within side. How do
people find courage to do a wrong thing, when an innocent discovery
cannot be prosecuted without such timidity?
[_Approaches the Door timidly, and unlocks it._
_Enter MISS ALTON._
Amazement! Miss Alton! what is all this?
_Miss Alton._ Madam, I was brought here, for an hour's concealment;
who I really am, I would not, if possible to avoid it, divulge in
this house. When you saw me last, you honoured me with a favourable
opinion--My story, not explained at full, might subject me to doubts,
that would shake your candour.
_Lady E._ What shall I do?--She is pale, and ready to faint--I cannot
let her be exposed in such a situation.--Retire--you may rely upon me
for present security--You know best your pretensions to my future
opinion.--[_Hearing SIR CLEMENT._]--Begone, or you are discovered.
[_Shuts her in, and locks CLIFFORD's Door._
_Enter SIR CLEMENT._
_Sir C._ Oh, the triumph of honour! Oh, the sincerity of friendship!
How my opinions are ratified--how my system is proved!
_Lady E._ Oh, spirits, spirits, forsake me not!--Oh, for a moment's
dissimulation!
_Sir C._ There are some, now, who would feed moroseness and misanthropy
with such events: to me they give delight, as convictions and warnings
to mankind.
_Lady E._ Of how superior a quality, my good uncle, must be the
benevolence you possess! it rises with the progress of mischief; and is
gratified (upon principles of general good) by finding confidence
abused, and esteem misplaced. Am I not right in attributing your joy at
present to that sort of refinement?
_Sir C._ Hah! and to what sensations, my good niece, shall be
attributed the present state of your spirits? To the disgust you took
to Clifford almost at first sight. It will not be with indifference,
but pleasure, you will hear of his turning out the veriest rascal, the
most complete impostor, the most abandoned--but hold, hold!--I must not
wrong him by superlatives--he is matched too.
_Lady E._ Really!--I congratulate you upon such a check of charity.
_Sir C._ And I wish you joy, my pretty pert one, upon the credit your
sex has acquired, in producing this other chef-d'oeuvre--such a
composition of the highest vices and the lowest--But your goodnature
will, I dare say, easily find palliatives for both parties.
_Lady E._ Come, sir; no more of your sarcasms. I can treat wrong
actions with levity, and yet consider them with detestation. Prudes and
pretenders condemn with austerity. To the collection of suspicions you
are master of, let me add one--In a young lady, of the delicacy and age
you have described, always suspect the virtue that does not wear a
smile.
_Sir C._ And the sincerity that wears one awkwardly.
_Enter PROMPT, hastily._
_Prompt._ Joy to your honour; I see you have caught her.
_Sir C._ Her!--whom?
_Prompt._ [_LADY EMILY turning._] I ask your ladyship's pardon--Having
only the glimpse of a petticoat, and knowing the object of my chase was
in this house, I confess I mistook you.
_Sir C._ In this house?
_Prompt._ As sure as we are--She came in through the garden, under Mr.
Clifford's arm--up the other stairs, I suppose.--If my lady had been
hereabouts, she must have seen her.
_Lady E._ [_In confusion._] Yes; but, unluckily, I was quite out of the
way.
_Sir C._ Such audaciousness passes credibility.--Emily, what do you
think of him?
_Lady E._ That he is a monster.--[_Aside._] How my dilemmas multiply!
_Sir C._ What, to my house! to his apartment here! I wonder he did not
ask for protection in yours.--What should you have said?
_Lady E._ I don't know; but, had I been so imposed upon as to receive
her, I should scorn to betray even the criminal I had engaged to
protect.
_Sir C._ [_Tries at the Door, and finds it locked._] Emily, my dear, do
ring the bell, to know if the housekeeper has a second key to this lock.
_Lady E._ What shall I do?
_Prompt._ She is certainly there, sir, and cannot escape. Where can she
better remain, till you can assemble all parties, confront them, face
to face, and bring every thing that has passed to a full explanation?
_Sir C._ With all my heart; send and collect every body concerned as
fast as possible.--How I long for so complicated an exhibition of the
purity of the human heart; Come with me, Emily, and help to digest my
plan,--Friends and lovers, what a scene shall we show you!
[_Takes LADY EMILY under the Arm.--Exeunt._
ACT THE FIFTH.
SCENE I.
_An Apartment._
_Enter CLIFFORD and MR. RIGHTLY._
_Cliff._ Your knowledge in the profession, Mr. Rightly, is as
unquestionable as your integrity; but there is something so surprising
in the recovery of the Charlton estate.--If you knew, too, how the
value of the acquisition is enhanced, by the opportune moment in which
it presents itself--I am in too much emotion to thank you as I ought.
_Rightly._ Sir, I want neither compliment, nor acknowledgment, for
revealing what I should be a party to dishonesty to conceal.
_Cliff._ You have a right to all my thoughts: but I have an appointment
to obey, that admits no time for explanation; favour me for a moment
with your pencil, [_RIGHTLY takes out a Pencil and Pocket-book._] and a
blank page in that memorandum-book.
[_CLIFFORD writes._
_Rightly._ My life on't, his head is turned upon some girl not worth a
shilling--There is an amiable defect, but a very observable one, in the
nature of some men. A good head and heart operate as effectually as
vice or folly could do to make them improvident.
_Cliff._ Mr. Rightly, I confide to your hands a new secret relative to
the Charlton estate; do not read it till you return home. [_Gives the
Book, aside, and going._] There, Gayville, is one reply to your
challenge--and now for another.
_Rightly._ One moment, sir--I engage for no secrecy that my own
judgment shall not warrant.
_Cliff._ And the benevolence of your heart approve--Those are my
conditions.
[_Exeunt on opposite Sides._
SCENE II.
_Hyde Park._
_Enter LORD GAYVILLE impetuously, looking at his Watch._
_Lord G._ Not here! I am sure I marked the hour as well as the place,
precisely in my note. [_Walks about._] Had I been told three days ago,
that I should have been the appellant in a premeditated duel, I should
have thought it an insult upon my principles--That Clifford should be
the cause of my transgressing the legal and sacred duties, we have ever
both maintained--oh, it would have seemed a visionary impossibility--But
he comes, to cut reflections short--
_Enter CLIFFORD._
_Lord G._ I waited for you, sir.
_Cliff._ [_Bows in Silence._]
_Lord G._ That ceremonial would grace an encounter of punctilio, but
applies ill to the terms upon which I have called you here.
_Cliff._ What terms are those, my lord?
_Lord G._ Vengeance! Ample, final vengeance! Draw, sir.
_Cliff._ No, my lord; my sword is reserved for more becoming purposes:
It is not the instrument of passion; and has yet been untried in a
dispute with my friend.
_Lord G._ But why is it not ready for a different trial, the
vindication of perfidy, the blackest species of perfidy, that ever the
malignant enemy of mankind infused into the human breast--perfidy to
the friend who loved and trusted you, and in the nearest interests of
his heart.
_Cliff._ Take care, my lord; should my blood boil like yours, and it
is rising fast, you know not the punishment that awaits you. I came
temperate, your gross provocation and thirst of blood make temperance
appear disgrace--I am tempted to take a revenge--
_Lord G._ [_Draws._] The means are ready. Come, sir, you are to give an
example of qualities generally held incompatible--bravery and dishonour.
_Cliff._ Another such a word, and by Heaven!--How have I deserved this
opinion?
_Lord G._ Ask your conscience--Under the mask of friendship you have
held a secret intercourse with the woman I adore; you have supplanted
me in her affections, you have robbed me of the very charm of my
life--can you deny it?
_Cliff._ I avow it all.
_Lord G._ Unparalleled insolence of guilt!
_Cliff._ Are you sure there is nothing within the scope of possibility
that would excuse or atone--
_Lord G._ Death--Death only--no abject submission--no compromise for
infamy--chuse instantly--and save yourself from the only stretch of
baseness left--the invention of falsehood to palliate.--
_Cliff._ [_In the utmost Agitation, and drawing his Sword._]
Falsehood!--You shall have no other explanation.--[_After a Struggle
within himself, CLIFFORD drops the Point, and exposes his Breast._]
_Lord G._ Stand upon your defence, sir--What do you mean?
_Cliff._ You said nothing but my life would satisfy you, take it, and
remember me.
_Lord G._ I say so still--but upon an equal pledge--I am no assassin.
_Cliff._ [_With great Emotion._] If to strike at the heart of your
friend, more deeply than that poor instrument in your hand could do,
makes an assassin, you have been one already.
_Lord G._ That look, that tone, how like to innocence! Had he not
avowed such abominable practices--
_Cliff._ I avow them again: I have rivalled you in the love of the
woman you adore--her affections are riveted to me. I have removed her
from your sight; secured her from your recovery--
_Lord G._ Damnation!
_Cliff._ I have done it to save unguarded beauty; to save unprotected
innocence; to save--a sister.
_Lord G._ A sister!
_Cliff._ [_With Exultation._] Vengeance! Ample, final vengeance!
[_A Pause._] It is accomplished--over him--and over myself--my victory
is complete.
_Lord G._ Where shall I hide my shame!
_Cliff._ We'll share it, and forget it here.
[_Embraces._
_Lord G._ Why did you keep the secret from me?
_Cliff._ I knew it not myself, till the strange concurrence of
circumstances, to which you were in part witness a few hours since,
brought it to light. I meant to impart to you the discovery, when my
temper took fire--Let us bury our mutual errors in the thought, that we
now for life are friends.
_Lord G._ Brothers, Clifford--Let us interchange that title, and
doubly, doubly ratify it. Unite me to your charming sister; accept
the hand of Lady Emily in return--her heart I have discovered to be
yours----We'll leave the world to the sordid and the tasteless; let an
Alscrip, or a Sir Clement Flint, wander after the phantom of happiness,
we shall find her real retreat, and hold her by the bonds she covets,
virtue, love, and friendship.
_Cliff._ Not a word more, my lord, the bars against your proposal are
insuperable.
_Lord G._ What bars?
_Cliff._ Honour! Propriety--and pride.
_Lord G._ Pride, Clifford!
_Cliff._ Yes, my lord; Harriet Clifford shall not steal the hand of a
prince; nor will I--though doting on Lady Emily with a passion like
your own, bear the idea of a clandestine union in a family, to whom
I am bound by obligation and trust. Indeed, my lord, without Sir
Clement's consent, you must think no more of my sister.
_Lord G._ Stern stoic, but I will, and not clandestinely; I'll
instantly to Sir Clement.
_Cliff._ Do not be rash; Fortune, or some better agent, is working in
wonders--Meet me presently at your uncle's; in the mean while promise
not to stir in this business.
_Lord G._ What hope from delay?
_Cliff._ Promise--
_Lord G._ I am in a state to catch at shadows----I'll try to obey you.
_Cliff._ Farewell!----
[_Exeunt._
SCENE III.
_SIR CLEMENT's House._
_Enter MISS ALSCRIP, in great Spirits, followed by MRS. BLANDISH._
_Miss Als._ I am delighted at this summons from Sir Clement, Blandish;
poor old clear-sight, I hope he has projected a reconciliation.
_Mrs. Blandish._ How I rejoice to see those smiles returned to the face
that was made for them!
_Miss Als._ Returned, Blandish? I desire you will not insinuate it ever
was without them--Why sure, you would not have the world imagine the
temper of an heiress of my class, was to be ruffled by the loss of a
paltry earl--I have been highly diverted with what has passed from
beginning to end.
_Mrs. Blandish._ Well, if good humour can be a fault, sure the excess
you carry it to must be the example.
_Miss Als._ I desire it may be made known in all companies, that I have
done nothing but laugh--nay, it is true too.
_Mrs. Blandish._ My dear creature, of what consequence is the truth,
when you are charging me with the execution of your desires?
_Miss Als._ But did you remember the airs of the moppet--Could any
thing be more ridiculous?
_Mrs. Blandish._ The rivalship you mean----Rival Miss Alscrip.--He! he!
he!
[_Half laugh._
_Miss Als._ Yes, but when you take this tone in public, laugh a little
louder.
_Mrs. Blandish._ Rival Miss Alscrip, ha! ha! ha!
_Both._ Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
_Mrs. Blandish._ [_Wiping her Eyes, as not quite recovered from her
Laugh._] For mirth's sake, what is become of the rival?--Whom will you
chuse she shall have run away with?
_Miss Als._ Leave it in doubt as it is; fixing circumstances confines
the curiosity to one story which may be disproved; uncertainty leaves
it open to a hundred, and makes them all probable. But I hear some of
the company upon the stairs: Now, Blandish--You shall be witness to the
temper and dignity, with which a woman of my consequence can discard a
quality courtship that offends her--
_Mrs. Blandish._ Sweet tempered soul!
_Enter SIR CLEMENT FLINT._
_Sir C._ Miss Alscrip, your--
[_As he is beginning to say your humble Servant,_
_Enter BLANDISH out of Breath._
_Blandish._ The duel's over.
_Sir C._ And the parties unhurt--You are too late in your intelligence
by some minutes. But I know you must rejoice [_Ironically._] from your
attachment to all parties.--Miss Alscrip, your very--
_Miss Als._ Duel!--Pray let us hear the particulars--As there is no
mischief, I shall not faint.
[_Ironically._
_Sir C._ I guess it has been of the common-place kind.--Hats over the
brows--glum silence--thrust--parry--and riposte----Explain and shake
hands: Your man of honour never sets his friend right, till he has
exchanged a shot--or a thrust: Oh, a little steel recipe is a morning
whet to the temper: It carries off all qualms, and leaves the digestion
free for any thing that is presented to it.
_Miss Als._ Dear, how fortunate! Considering the pills some folks have
to swallow.
_Sir C._ Blandish, see if the door of Clifford's room is yet unlocked,
there is a person within you little expect to find, and whom it may be
proper for this lady and me to interrogate together.
[_The Door opens, and_
_Enter LADY EMILY._
_Blandish._ Lady Emily!
_Sir C._ Inexplicable, with a vengeance.
_Miss Als._ [_Aside._] Lady Emily, shut up in Clifford's apartment!
Beyond my expectation, indeed.
[_With a malicious Air._
[_LADY EMILY seems pleased._
_Sir C._ [_Dryly._] Lady Emily, I know you were always cautious whom
you visited, and never gave a better proof of your discernment.
_Lady E._ Never. Oh! my poor dear uncle, you little think what is going
to befall you.
_Sir C._ Not a disappointment in love, I hope.
_Lady E._ No, but in something much nearer your heart--your system is
threatened with a blow, that I think, and from my soul I hope, it never
will recover: would you guess that the sagacious observations of your
whole life are upon the point of being confounded by the production--
_Sir C._ Of what?
_Lady E._ A woman of ingenuous discretion, and a man of unaffected
integrity.
_Sir C._ Hah!
_Mrs. Blandish._ What can she mean?
_Miss Als._ Nothing good--she looks so pleasant.
_Lady E._ Come forth, my injured friend. Our personal acquaintance
has been short, but our hearts were intimate from the first sight.
[_Presenting her._] Your prisoner, sir, is Miss Harriet Clifford.
_Sir C._ Clifford's sister!
_Miss Als._ What, the run-away Alton, turned into a sprig of quality.
_Lady E._ [_Disdainfully to MISS ALSCRIP._] The humble dependent of
Alscrip house--The wanton--the paragon of fraud--the only female that
can equal Clifford. [_Tauntingly to SIR CLEMENT._] She is indeed!
[_With Emphasis and Affection._
_Blandish._ [_Aside._] Oh, rot the source of the family fondness--I see
I have no card left in my favour--but the heiress. [_Goes to her and
pays Court--During this Conversation, aside, LADY EMILY seems encouraging
MISS CLIFFORD.--SIR CLEMENT musing, and by Turns examining her._]
_Sir C._ [_To himself._] "Ingenuous discretion!"
_Enter CLIFFORD, and runs to his Sister._
_Cliff._ My dearest Harriet! the joy I purposed in presenting you here,
is anticipated: but, my blameless fugitive! when your story is known,
my pride in you will not be a wonder.--Miss Clifford, behold your
persecutor and your convert.
_Enter LORD GAYVILLE._
_Lord G._ [_With Rapture._] Her persecutor and her convert. Her
virtues, which no humility could conceal, and every trial made more
resplendent, discovered, disgraced, and reclaimed a libertine.--
_Miss Cliff._ How am I distressed!--what ought I to answer?
_Lord G._ Impressed sentiment upon desire, gave honour to passion, and
drew from my soul a vow, which Heaven chastise me when I violate, to
obtain her by a legal, sacred claim, or renounce fortune, family and
friends, and become a self-devoted outcast of the world.
_Miss Cliff._ Oh! brother, interpose.
_Sir C._ My lord, your fortune, family and friends are much obliged to
you. Your part is perfect--Mr. Clifford, you are called upon. Miss, in
strict propriety, throws the business upon her relations--Come, finish
the comedy, join one of her hands to the gallant's, while, with the
other, she covers her blushes--and he in rapture delivers the moral.
All for Love, or, the World well lost.
[_MISS CLIFFORD still appears agitated._
_Cliff._ Be patient, my Harriet, this is the school for prejudice, and
the lesson of its shame is near.
_Miss Als._ I vow these singular circumstances give me quite a
confusion of pleasure. The astonishing good fortune of my late
protegee, in finding so impassioned a friendship in her brother's
bed-chamber; the captivating eloquence of Lord Gayville, in winding up
an eclaircissement which I admire--not for the first time--to-day--and
the superlative joy Sir Clement must feel at an union, founded upon the
purity of the passions,--are subjects of such different congratulation,
that I hardly know where to begin.
_Lady E._ [_Aside_] Charming! her insolence will justify what so seldom
occurs to one--a severe retort, without a possible sense of compunction.
_Miss Als._ But in point of fortune--don't imagine, Sir Clement, I
would insinuate that the lady is destitute--oh Lord, far from it. Her
musical talents are a portion--
_ALSCRIP and RIGHTLY without._
_Alscrip._ Why, stop a moment--
_Sir C._ What have we here--the lawyers in dispute?
_Alscrip._ [_Entering._] You have not heard my last word yet.
_Rightly._ [_Entering._] You have heard mine, sir.
_Alscrip._ [_Whispering._] I'll make the five thousand I offered, ten.
_Rightly._ Millions would not bribe me--[_Coming forward._] When I
detect wrong, and vindicate the sufferer, I feel the spirit of the law
of England, and the pride of a practitioner.
_Alscrip._ Lucifer confound such practices! [_In this Part of the Scene,
SIR CLEMENT, LORD GAYVILLE, LADY EMILY, CLIFFORD, and MISS CLIFFORD,
form one Group._]
[_RIGHTLY opens a Deed, and points out a Part of it to SIR CLEMENT._]
[_MR. and MISS ALSCRIP carry on the following Speeches on the Side at
which ALSCRIP has entered. And MR. and MRS. BLANDISH are farther back,
observing._]
_Alscrip._ That cursed! cursed flaw.--
_Miss Als._ Flaw! who has dared to talk of one? not in my reputation,
sir?
_Alscrip._ No, but in my estate; which is a damned deal worse.
_Miss Als._ How? what? when?--where?----The estate that was to be
settled upon me?
_Alscrip._ Yes, but that _me_ turned topsey turvey--when _me_ broke
into my room this morning, and the devil followed, to fly away with all
my faculties at once--I am ruined--Let us see what you will settle upon
your poor father.
_Miss Als._ I settle upon you?
_Mrs. Blandish._ This is an embarrassing accident.
_Miss Als._ Yes, and a pretty help you are, with a drop chin, like a
frontispiece to the Lamentations.
_Rightly._ [_Coming forward with SIR CLEMENT._] I stated this with some
doubt this morning, but now my credit as a lawyer upon the issue.--The
heiress falls short of the terms in your treaty by two thousand pounds
a-year--which this deed, lately and providentially discovered, entails
upon the heirs of Sir William Charlton, and consequently, in right of
his mother, upon this gentleman.
_Lady E._ How!
_Lord G._ Happy disappointment.
_Sir C._ [_Aside._] Two thousand a-year to Clifford! It's a pity, for
the parade of disinterestedness, that he opened his designs upon Emily,
before he knew his pretensions.
_Lady E._ [_Aside._] Now, if there were twenty ceilings, and as many
floors, could not I find a spot to settle my silly looks upon.
[_SIR CLEMENT observes her with his usual Shyness._
_Sir C._ [_Turning towards ALSCRIP._] Palm a false title upon me? I
should have thought the attempt beyond the collective assurance of
Westminster-hall--and he takes the loss as much to heart as if he
bought the estate with his own money.
_Alscrip._ [_With Hesitation._] Sir Clement--what think you--of an
amicable adjustment of all these businesses?
_Sir C._ [_Ironically._] Nothing can be more reasonable. The value of
Miss Alscrip's amiable disposition, placed against the abatement of her
fortune, is a matter of the most easy computation; and to decide the
portion, Mr. Clifford ought to relinquish of his acquisition--Lady
Emily--will you be a referee?
_Lady E._ [_Aside._] Yes, the lynx has me--I thought I should not
escape.--[_To him._] No, sir; my poor abilities only extend to an
amicable endeavour here. [_To MISS ALSCRIP._] And really, Miss Alscrip,
I see no reason for your being dispirited; there may be many ready-made
titles at market, within the reach of your purse. Or, why should not
a woman of your consequence originate her own splendour? there's an
old admirer of mine--He would make a very pretty lord--and indeed,
would contribute something on his own part, to ease the purchase--The
Blandish family is well with all administrations, and a new coronet is
always as big again as an old one. I don't see how you could lay out
part of your independency to more advantage.
_Blandish._ [_Aside._] Yes, but since flaws are in fashion, I shall
look a little into things before I agree to the bargain.
_Miss Als._ [_Aside._] I'll die before I'll discover my vexation--and
yet, [_Half crying._] no title--no place.
_Lady E._ Depend upon it, Miss Alscrip, your place will be found
exactly where it ought to be. The public eye, in this country, is never
long deceived--Believe me--and cherish obscurity--Title may bring
forward merits, but it also places our defects in horrid relief.
_Alscrip._ Molly, the sooner we get out of court the better--we have
damnably the worst of this cause, so come along, Molly--[_Taking her
under the Arm._]--and farewell to Berkeley Square. Whoever wants
Alscrip House, will find it in the neighbourhood of Furnival's Inn,
with the noble title of Scrivener, in capitals--Blank bonds at the
windows, and a brass knocker at the door. [_Pulling her._] Come along,
Molly.
_Miss Als._ [_Half crying.--Aside._] Oh! the barbarous metamorphosis--but
his flusterums for a week, will serve my temper, as a regimen. I will
then take the management of my affairs into my own hands, and break
from my cloud anew: and you shall find [_To the Company._] there are
those without a coronet, that can be as saucy, and as loud, and stop
the way in all public places, as well as the best of you. [_LADY EMILY
laughs._] Yes, madam, and without borrowing your ladyship's airs.
_Als._ [_Pulling her._] Come along, Molly.
_Miss Als._ Oh you have been a jewel of a father.
[_The Company laugh._
[_Exeunt MR. and MISS ALSCRIP._
[_MR. and MRS. BLANDISH stay behind._
_Lady E._ Mrs. Blandish, sure you do not leave your friend, Miss
Alscrip, in distress?
_Mrs. Blandish._ We'll not disturb the ashes of the dead--my sweet Lady
Emily--
_Blandish._ Oh my sweet sister, none of your flourishes--In the present
mood of the company, even mine would not do. Truth and sentiment have
the ascendency. But let them alone; and they'll come round again.
[_Addressing the Company._] Flattery is the diet of good humour; and
not one of you can live without it; and when you quarrel with the
family of Blandish, you only leave refined cookery, to be fed upon
scraps, by a poor cousin or a led captain.
[_Taking his Sister under his Arm._
_Mrs. Blandish._ [_With a Look of Courtship to the Company._] Oh! the
two charming pairs!
_Blandish._ [_Pulling her away._] Oh! thou walking dedication!
[_Exeunt._
_Lord G._ Precious group, fare ye well. [_To SIR CLEMENT._] And now,
sir, whatever may be your determinations towards me--here are pretensions
you may patronize without breach of discretion. The estate which devolves
to my friend--
_Rightly._ To prevent errors--is not his to bestow.
_Sir C._ What now--more flaws?
_Rightly._ The estate was his beyond the reach of controversy: but before
he was truly sure of it, on his way to Hyde-Park, did this spendthrift,
by a stroke of his pen, divest himself of every shilling--Here is the
covenant by which he binds himself to execute proper conveyances as soon
as the necessary forms can be gone through.
_Lord G._ And in favour of whom is this desperate act?
_Rightly._ Of a most dangerous seducer--a little mercenary, that, when
she gets hold of the heart, does not leave an atom of it our own.
_All._ How!
_Rightly._ [_With Feeling._] And there she stands, [_Pointing to MISS
CLIFFORD._] with a look and an emotion that would condemn her before
any court in the universe.
_Lady E._ Glorious--matchless Clifford!
_Miss Cliff._ Brother, this must not be.
_Cliff._ Your pardon, my dear Harriet, it is done. Sir Clement, my
sister's fortune is still far short of what you expected with Miss
Alscrip; for that deficiency, I have only to offer the virtues Lord
Gayville has proved, and the affection she found it easier to control,
than to conceal. If you will receive her, thus circumstanced, into your
family, mine has been an acquisition indeed.
_Lady E._ [_Coming up to SIR CLEMENT._] Now, sir, where's the suspicion!
Where is now the ruling principle that governs mankind! Through what
perspective, by what trial, will you find self-interest here? What,
not one pithy word to mock my credulity!--Alas! poor Yorick--quite
chop-fallen.--Forgive me, sir, I own I am agitated to extravagance--You
found me disconcerted at the first discovery; I am delighted at the
last; there's a problem of my disposition worthy your solving.
_Sir C._ [_Who has been profoundly thoughtful._] Mr. Rightly, favour me
with that paper in your hand.
_Rightly._ Mr. Clifford's engagement, sir. [_Gives the Paper: SIR CLEMENT
looks it over, and tears it._] What do you mean, sir?
_Sir C._ To cancel the obligation, and pay the equivalent to Gayville;
or if Clifford will have his own way, and become a beggar by renewing
it, to make an heiress of my own for his reparation--and there she
stands. [_Pointing to LADY EMILY._] With sensibility and vivacity so
uncommonly blended, that they extract benevolence wherever it exists,
and create it where it never was before--Your point is carried--You may
both fall upon your knees, for the consent of the ladies.
_Lord G._ [_To MISS CLIFFORD._] In this happy moment, let my errors be
forgot, and my love alone remembered.
_Miss Cliff._ With these sanctions for my avowal--I will not deny that
I saw and felt the sincerity of your attachment, from the time it was
capable of being restrained by respect.
_Cliff._ Words are wanting, Lady Emily--
_Lady E._ I wish they may with all my heart, but it is generally
remarked that wanting words, is the beginning of a florid set
speech--To be serious, Clifford--We want but little explanation on
either side--Sir Clement will tell you how long we have conversed by
our actions. [_Gives her Hand._] My dear uncle, how a smile becomes you
in its natural meaning!
_Sir C._ If you think me a convert, you are mistaken: I have ever
believed _self_ to be the predominant principle of the human mind--My
heart at this instant confirms the doctrine--There's my problem for
yours, my dear Emily, and may all who hear me agree in this solution--to
reward the deserving, and make those we love happy, is self-interest
in the extreme.
THE END.
ADVERTISEMENT.
Particular circumstances make it requisite to state--that many of
the foregoing, one hundred and twenty-five, little Prefaces, have
been written, and printed, at periods by no means corresponding
with the time of their publication; which depended solely on the
engravers of the plates:--In consequence of which arrangement, some
of them, that were written first, have been published almost at the
conclusion of the work; whilst others that were hastily called for
at its commencement, were not originally designed for so early an
appearance before the public.--It has sometimes also occurred, that
the performers accidentally mentioned in those Remarks, have not
been such as the Editor has afterwards placed in the _Dramatis
Personae_ of the play; with which the writer had no previous concern
or knowledge.
* * * * *
[=Transcriber's Note:= Variants spellings of numerous words are retained
as in the original.]