(_Enter_ TEMPENNY _and_ SYLVESTER. _L._)
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
What"s this I see, do I dream?
CHARLES SYLVESTER.
Are visions about?
MRS. TEMPENNY (_aside to_ TEMPENNY).
Why on earth didn"t you tell me? They are engaged--I might have offended him for life!
MRS. SYLVESTER (_aside to_ SYLVESTER).
How stupid you were! They are going to be married. Why, you might never have got an order from him again!
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.
Dear, dear, dear, but my very good friend, if this lady is going to be your wife, how about "Susannah?"
HENRICH SCHERCL.
Forgive me, "Susannah" cannot be. I release you from the contract.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY (_aside_).
Tidings of joy! (_Aloud_.) But--but--this is very hard on me.
HENRICH SCHERCL.
I release you, and I pay you just the same.
REMBRANDT TFMPENNY.
But she has had the money for a dozen sittings.
HENRICH SCHERCL.
I pay.
(_Enter_ SUSAN.)
SUSAN.
If you please, sir, there"s a hofficer of the law downstairs and he wants Mr. Tempenny or forty pun", sixteen shillings and ninepence.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY (_waving his hand_).
Schercl!
HENRICH SCHERCL.
I pay--and I gif you the balance by a jeque.
REMBRANDT TEMPENNY (_with mock despair_).
Pay--you pay? But the work of my life unfinished.--What money can compensate for that?
(_Sinks forlornly into chair_.)
_Curtain_.
THE END.