MARIA. Yes, sir.
LOVEYET. Oh, you dear little rogue! With whom, eigh, with whom?--Don"t be bashful,--tell them.--I know she means me. [_Aside._
MARIA. I beg to be excused from telling that, sir; but I will tell you who it is I would _not_ have.
LOVEYET. Aye, that"s him.--[_Aside, looking at FRANKTON._]--Well, who is it you won"t have, Maria, who is it?
MARIA. You, sir. [_Emphatically._
LOVEYET. Me, eigh?--me--me, Maria?
CHARLES. Preposterous infatuation!
LOVEYET. D----"d, wanton, treacherous jilt!
[_Walks about discomposed._
MARIA. You have jilted yourself, sir;--nothing but excess of dotage and self-conceit could have let you impose on yourself in such a manner.
FRANKTON. And may I then hope--
MARIA. Hope?--Oh, yes, sir;--you have my permission to _hope_ for anything you please.
CHARLES. And you, madam, the disposition to gratify his hopes, I fancy.
LOVEYET. I fancy you lie, sir; and you sha"n"t have Harriet, for your impertinence.
CHARLES. Excuse me, father;--it is not in your power to prevent that;--the happy deed is already executed.
LOVEYET. "Zounds! that"s true!--and, what is still worse, the other deed is executed too.--Fire and fury! All is lost, for the sake of that inveigling, perfidious young Syren. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
TRUEMAN. [_Burlesquing what LOVEYET has said in a former scene._] ""Sdeath, sir! I tell you I am but two and forty years old: she sha"n"t be more than thirty odd, sir; and she shall be ten years younger than I am too.--A man of five and forty, old, forsooth!" Ha, ha, ha.
LOVEYET. Perdition! Is this what I have come to at last?--Despis"d,-- betray"d,--laugh"d at,--supplanted by a puppy,--[_Pointing to FRANKTON_]-- trick"d out of my money by a graceless, aristocratic son,--I--I"ll--I"ll go hang myself.
[_Exit in a pa.s.sion._
HUMPHRY. This is, for all the world, like the show I see t"other night, at the Play-house.
CHARLES. His agitation of mind distresses me: my happiness is not complete, while it is enjoyed at the expense of a father"s:--painful reflection!--We will go immediately, Harriet, and endeavour to pacify him.
_His conduct shall instruct the h.o.a.ry Sage, That youth and beauty were not meant for age; His rage, resentment, av"rice, dotage, pride, (Sad view of human nature"s frailest side!) Shall mend us all;--but chiefly I shall prove, That all his Politics, can never match my LOVE._
_The End._