with regard to my love, than to your disposition. Since our marriage I have hardly dared to own, even to myself, that I was deceived; and, heaven knows with what triumph I have waited till your conviction of my everlasting attachment to you, should have rendered your affection as durable as it was warm-but now all is past, and I have only to lament, in solitude, the weakness of my efforts, so inadequate in arresting the regard of him I could have loved for ever.

Mel. Have mercy, mercy-I entreat you !Put me to the trial once more-covered as I am with all the weaknesses and infirmities of our nature, I will not dare to make protestations, but surely my love can never vary, strengthened as it must be with feelings of esteem, encreasing every moment, and the sincerest and deepest gratitude.

Mrs. Mel. But what will my father say?

Mel. You know he has no object but your happiness, and no will but yours.

Mrs. Mel. But you have wounded him in so nice a point-in driving him to the protection of his child, you have put him upon ground of which he is so jealous

Mel. Gracious heaven! that any protection should have been found necessary for you, but that which I afforded you-but will you forgive

me.

Mrs. Mel. Are you afraid I should retract?
Mel. No, no.

Mrs. Mel. What then-after all I am an imprudent creature.

go.

Enter LOVECHILD.

Lovec. Come, Louisa, the coach is at the door -come, come long.

Mrs. Mel. But Melville declares I shall not

Lovec. Not go? but I say you shall go, what right has he to prevent you from coming to your father's house, when he makes your own worse than a dungeon to you; not a husband's I am sure he has forfeited that title long-I was in hopes you never would have seen him again; you have been miserable enough already with him-come, come along Louisa.

Mrs. Mel. I have forgiven him.

Lovec. Forgiven him!

Mel. Your confidence, my dear sir, is more than I can expect, yet with all this excellence, as my security

Lovec. Forgiven him-its impossible, Louisahe'll break your heart-you know he'll break your heart-and so, sir, you think a few fine speeches a compensation for your conduct.

Mel. No, no, indeed-if you had been strictly just, I should have been lost for ever.

Lovec. There again-why, Louisa-look at him-can you trust that stern, rigid, inflexible

countenance of his-did you ever see such a wintry aspect as the rogue has-but if you have forgiven him, to be sure there is no more to be said—so, there's my hand, Charles-and there's my daughter, my boy-and if you quarrel again, why egad, you must contrive a reconciliation as well as you can.

Enter EMILY and MELLEFONT.

All's right again, my dear Mellefont, here they are.

Enter SETTLE.

Sett. What does Mellefont mean by collecting us all together in this room?

Lovec. All's right, gentlemen-strew the ground with flowers-let the bells ring till the steeple totters-I'll have you married to-morrow, Emily. If the parson is able to get through the service; if he does not stammer out every line, so as to be perfectly unintelligible from mere joy, I'll never speak to him again.

Sett. Well done, old gentleman.

Enter LOVELL, SOPHIA, and DAZZLE.

Mel. I had forgotten.

VOL. II.

I

Lov. Come, Melville, do not turn away, here is one, who remembers an offence but to forgive it.

Sophia. Mr. Melville, I am sure, will not pay me so poor a compliment as to imagine I can resent a conduct, of which I myself was the principal occasion.

Mel. (Aside.) I never was so oppressed in my life. I shall study to deserve your good opinion. (bows.)

Daz. (to Settle) Mr. Settle, we are oddly left out here.

Sett. I don't understand it, but I am going away to-morrow.

Daz. And I this very evening-for I see, in this house a single man's a monster that nobody comprehends. I'll be with you in a month again, properly qualified. Really we are all got together here like actors at the end of a play; and indeed, if the scenes of Melville-house were in the hands of a fellow who could write, they would not be amiss on the stage. Farewell, till I introduce some happy creature to you under the name of Mrs. Dazzle. Mr. Lovell, I congratulate you the mistakes of love are forgotten in its rewards-and you, Mr. Lovechild, who see your best hopes and wishes accomplished in the situation of your children-and you, Mellefont, " in whom the elements are so mixed," that with all possible happiness, you have the best security for its continuance. As for you, Melville, shall I

congratulate or condole with you-you who soar so near the sun, like the poor boy, with waxen wings. Learn, learn, my good fellow, to expect less, that you may enjoy more. Prefer a pre

sent good, to mere speculations on the future, yet shun the current of impulse, even when it attracts you with the dazzling brilliancy of romance. The torrent is admired at a distanceit is grand, awful, and sublime-but in a home view, we love a stream at once deep, and smooth, and clear-uninterrupted in its course—full, but not overflowing-or if you would rather hear the admonitions of the softer sex, remember the words of the proud and tender Julia, that beautiful creation of a resplendent genius, whose name is sacred alike to freedom and the muse. "When "hearts, deserving happiness, would unite their "fortune, virtue would crown them with an un"fading garland of modest, hurtless flowers; but

ill-judging passion will force the gaudier rose "into the wreath, whose thorn offends them, "when its leaves are dropt."-And now having made my speech-farewell.

Exit.

Mellef. It is a speech, I fear, to be applauded by the friend, rather than the moralist. I who have witnessed the misery, your conduct, Melville, has occasioned, and who have myself suffered from it's consequences, dare scarcely praise virtues which have been the means of rendering your errors so destructive. And even now, when you are thus humbled and repentant, I