_The nightingale plunder"d, the mate-widow"d dove,_ _The warbled complaint of the suffering grove,_ _To youth as it ripened gave sentiment new,_ _The object still changing, the sympathy true._
_Soft embers of pa.s.sion yet rest in the glow--_ _A warmth of more pain may this breast never know!_ _Or if too indulgent the blessing I claim,_ _Let reason awaken, and govern the flame._
_Miss Als._ I declare not amiss, Blandish: only a little too plaintive--but I dare say she can play a country dance, when the enlivening is required--So, Miss Alton, you are welcome to my protection; and indeed I wish you to stay from this hour. My toilet being nearly finished, I shall have a horrid vacation till dinner.
_Miss Alton._ Madam, you do me great honour, and I very readily obey you.
_Mrs. Blandish._ I wish you joy, Miss Alton, of the most enviable situation a young person of elegant talents could be raised to. You and I will vie with each other, to prevent our dear countess ever knowing a melancholy hour. She has but one fault to correct--the giving way to the soft effusions of a too tender heart.
_Enter SERVANT._
_Serv._ Madam, a letter----
_Miss Als._ It"s big enough for a state packet--Oh! mercy, a pet.i.tion--for Heaven"s sake, Miss Alton, look it over. [_MISS ALTON reads._] I should as soon read one of Lady Newchapel"s methodist sermons--What does it contain?
_Miss Alton._ Madam, an uncommon series of calamities, which prudence could neither see, nor prevent: the reverse of a whole family from affluence and content to misery and imprisonment; and it adds, that the parties have the honour, remotely, to be allied to you.
_Miss Als._ Remote relations! ay, they always think one"s made of money.
_Enter another SERVANT._
_2 Serv._ A messenger, madam, from the animal repository, with the only puppy of the Peruvians, and the refusal at twenty guineas.
_Miss Als._ Twenty guineas! Were he to ask fifty, I must have him.
_Mrs. Blandish._ [_Offering to run out._] I vow I"ll give him the first kiss.
_Miss Als._ [_Stopping her._] I"ll swear you shan"t.
_Miss Alton._ Madam, I was just finishing the pet.i.tion.
_Miss Als._ It"s throwing money away--But give him a crown.
[_Exit with MRS. BLANDISH striving which shall be first._
_Miss Alton._ "The soft effusions of a too tender heart." The proof is excellent. That the covetous should be deaf to the miserable, I can conceive; but I should not have believed, if I had not seen, that a taste for profusion did not find its first indulgence in benevolence.
[_Exit._
ACT THE THIRD.
SCENE I.
_MISS ALSCRIP"s Dressing-room._
_MISS ALTON, discovered._
_Miss Alton._ Thanks to Mrs. Blandish"s inexhaustible talent for encomium, I shall be relieved from one part of a companion that my nature revolts at. But who comes here? It"s well if I shall not be exposed to impertinences I was not aware of.
_Enter CHIGNON._
_Chignon._ [_Aside._] Ma foi, la voila--I will lose no time to pay my addresse--Now for de humble maniere, and de unperplex a.s.surance of my contree [_Bowing with a French shrug.--MISS ALTON turning over Music Books._] Mademoiselle, est-il permis? may I presume to offer you my profound homage [_MISS ALTON not taking Notice._] Mademoiselle--if you vill put your head into my hands, I vill give a distinction to your beauty, that shall make you and me de conversation of all de town.
_Miss Alton._ I request, Mr. Chignon, you will devote your ambition to your own part of the compliment.
_Mr. Als._ [_Without._] Where is my daughter?
_Miss Alton._ Is that Mr. Alscrip"s voice, Mr. Chignon? It"s awkward for me to meet him before I"m introduced.
_Chignon._ Keep a little behind, mademoiselle; he vill only pashe de room--He vill not see through me.
_Enter ALSCRIP._
_Alscrip._ Hah, my daughter gone already, but [_Sees CHIGNON._] there"s a new specimen of foreign vermin--A lady"s valet de chambre--Taste for ever!--Now if I was to give the charge of my person to a waiting maid, they"d say I was indelicate. [_As he crosses the Stage, CHIGNON keeps sideling to intercept his Sight, and bowing as he looks towards him._]
What the devil is mounseer at? I thought all his agility lay in his fingers: what antics is the monkey practising? He twists and doubles himself as if he had a raree-show at his back.
_Chignon._ [_Aside._] Be gar no raree-show for you, monsieur Alscrip, if I can help.
_Alscrip._ [_Spying MISS ALTON._] Ah! ah! What have we got there?
Monsieur, who is that?
_Chignon._ Sir, my lady wish to speak to you in her boudoir. She sent me to conduct you, sir.
_Alscrip._ [_Imitating._] Yes, sir, but I will first conduct myself to this lady--Tell me this minute, who she is?
_Chignon._ Sir, she come to live here, companion to my lady--Mademoiselle study some musique--she must not be disturbed.
_Alscrip._ Get about your business, monsieur, or I"ll disturb every comb in your head--Go tell my daughter to stay till I come to her. I shall give her companion some cautions against saucy Frenchmen, sirrah!
_Chignon._ [_Aside._] Cautions! peste! you are subject a" cautions yourself--I suspecte you to be von old rake, but no ver dangerous rival.
[_Exit._
_Alscrip._ [_To himself, and looking at her with his Gla.s.s._] The devil is never tired of throwing baits in my way. [_She comes forward modestly._] By all that"s delicious! I must be better acquainted with her. [_He bows. She courtesies, the Music Book still in her Hand._]
But how to begin--My usual way of attacking my daughter"s maids will never do.
_Miss Alton._ [_Aside._] My situation is very embarra.s.sing.
_Alscrip._ Beauteous stranger, give me leave to add my welcome to my daughter"s. Since Alscrip House was established, she never brought any thing into it to please me before.
_Miss Alton._ [_A little confused._] Sir, it is a great additional honour to that Miss Alscrip has done me, to be thought worthy so respectable a protection as yours.
_Alscrip._ I could furnish you with a better word than respectable.
It sounds so distant, and my feelings have so little to do with cold respect--I never had such a desire--to make myself agreeable.