formed of this transaction, as you will find, if any dispute. should arise in the case. He was the next occupier of the house you hired last September; the woman who kept it informed him that the last person who hired it was a lady who stayed one day only, and came to town, she found merely to be married. On enquiry he discovered that the lady was Miss Beverly.

Cec. You will find all this, Sir, end in nothing.

Gent. That, Madam, remains to be proved. If a young lady is seen-and she was seen, going into church at eight o'clock in the morning, with a young gentleman and one female friend; and is afterwards seen coming out of it followed by a clergyman and one other person-and is seen to get into a coach with the same young gentleman. and same female friend, why the circumstances are pretty strong!

Cec. They may seem so, Sir, but all conclusions drawn from them will be erroneous: I was not married then up-.. on my honor.

Gent. We have little to do, Madam, with professions; the circumstances are strong enough to bear trial, and— Cec. A trial!

Gent. We have found many witnesses to prove a num ber of particulars, and eight months share of such an estate as this, is worth a little trouble.

Cec.. I am amazed, Sir; surely Mr. Eggleston never authorized you to make use of this language to me.

Gent. Mr. Eggleston, Madam has behaved very honorably though he knew the whole affair, he supposed Mr. Delvill had good reasons for a short concealment, and expected every day when the matter would become public. He therefore did not interfere. But on hearing that Mr. Delvill had set out for the continent, he was advised to claim his rights.

Cec. His claims, Sir will doubtless be satisfied without threatening or law suits.

Gent. The truth is Madam, Mr. Eggleston is a little embarrassed for want of some money. This makes it a point with him, to have the affair settled speedily, unless you choose to compromise, by advancing a particular sum, till it suits you to refund the whole that is due to him, and quit the premises.

Cec. Nothing, Sir, is due to him; at least nothing

worth mentioning. I will enter into no terms; I have no compromise to make. As to the premises I will quit them as soon as possible.

Gent. You will do well, Madam, for the truth is, it will not be convenient for him to wait any longer. [Goes out.] Cec. How weak and blind have I been, to form a secret plan of defrauding the heir to my uncle's estate! I am betrayed-and I deserve it. Never, never more will I disgrace myself by such an act.

Cec.

WHAT

THAT is the matter with my dear Henrietta? Who is it that has already afflicted that kind heart, which I am now compelled to afflict for myself? Hen. No, Madam, not afflicted for you! It would be strange if I was while I think as I now do.

Cec. I am glad you are not, for was it possible I would give you nothing but pleasure and joy.

Hen. Ah, Madam, why will you say so, when you don't care what becomes of me? When you are going to cast me off? and when you will soon be too happy to think of

me more.

Cec. If I am never happy till then, sad indeed will be my life! No, my gentlest friend, you will always have your share in my heart: and to me would always have been the welcomest guest in my house, but for those unhappy circumstances which make our separating inevitar ble.

Hen. Yet you suffered me, Madam, to hear from any body that you was married and going away; and all the common servants in the house knew it before me.

Cec. I am amazed! How and which way can they have heard it?

Hen. The man that went to Mr. Eggleston brought the first news of it, for he said all the servants there talked of nothing else, and that their master was to come and take possession here next Thursday. +

Cec. Yet you envy me, tho' I am forced to leave my house? tho' I am not provided with any other! and tho' he for whom I relinquish it is far off, without the means of protecting me or the power of returning home..

Hen. But are you married to him madam?

Cec. True my love, but I am also parted from him.

Hen. O how differently do the great think from the little. Was I married-and so married, I should want. neither house nor fine cloathes, nor riches, nor any thing --I should not care where I lived-every place would be a paradise to me.'

Cec. O Henrietta! Should I ever repine at my situa tion I will call to mind this heroic declaration of yours, and blush for my own weakness.

Scene between DR. LYSTER, MR. DELVILL, MR. MORTIMER DELVILL and CECILIA his wife, and LADY HONO

RIA.

Y

Dr. Lys. My good friends, in the course of my long

practice, I have found it impossible to study the human frame, without looking a little into the mind; and from all that I have yet been able to make out. either by observation, reflection or comparison, it appears to me at this moment, that Mr. Mortimer Delvill has got the best wife, and you, Sir, [to Mr. Delvill] the most faultless daughter-in-law, that any husband. or any fatherin-law in the kingdom can have or desire.

Lady Hon. When you say the best and most faultless, Dr. Lyster you should always add, the rest of the company excepted.

Dr. Lys. Upon my word, I beg your Ladyship's pardon; but sometimes an unguarded warmth comes across a man, that drives ceremony from his head, and makes him speak truth before he well knows where he is.

Lady Hon. Oh terrible! this is sinking deeper and deep;I had hopes the town air had taught you better things; but I find you have visited Delvill castle till you are fit for no other place.

Del. [offended] Whoever Lady Honoria, is fit for Delvill Castle, must be fit for every other place; tho' every other place may by no means be fit for him.

Lady Hon. O yes, Sir, every possible place will be fit for him if he can once bear with that. Don't you think so Dr. Lyster?

Dr. Lys. Why, when a man has the honor to see your Ladyship, he is apt to think too much of the person to care about the place.

Lady Hon. Come, I begin to have some hopes of you for I see, for a doctor, you really have a pretty notion

of a compliment. Only you have one great fault still, you look the whole time, as if you said it for a joke.

Dr. Lys. Why in fact, Madam, when a man has been a plain dealer both in word and look for fifty years, 'tis expecting too quick a reformation to demand ducility of voice and eye for him at a blow. However give me a little time and a little encouragement, and with such a tutoress, 'twill be hard, if I do not in a few lessons, learn the right method of seasoning a simper, and the newest fashion. of twisting words from their meaning.

Lady Hon. But pray, Sir, always remember on these occasions to look serious. Nothing sets off a compliment so much as a long face. If you are tempted to an unseasonable laugh, think of Delvill Castle; 'tis an expedient I commonly make use of myself, when I am afraid of being too frolicsome; and it always succeeds, for the very tho't of it gives me the head-ache in a moment. I wonder Mr. Delvill, you keep your health so good; after living in that horrible place so long. I have expected to hear of your death at the end of the summer, and I assure you, I was once very near buying mourning.

Del. The estate which descends to a man from his ancestors, Lady Honoria, will seldom be apt to injure his health, if he is conscious of committing no misdemeanor which has degraded their memory.

Lady Hon. In a low voice to Cecilia.] How vastly odious is this new father of yours! What could ever induce you to give up your charming estate for the sake of coming into his fusty old family? I would really advise you to have your marriage annulied. You know, you have only to take an oath that you were forcibly run away with; and as you are an heiress, and the Delvill's are all so violent, it will easily be believed. And then, as soon as you are at liberty, I would advise you to marry my little Lord Derford.

Cec. Would you only then have me re gain my freedom in order to part with it?

Lady Hon. Certainly, for you can do nothing at all without being married. A single woman is a thousad times more shackled than a wife for she is accountable to every body; and a wife you know has nothing to do but just to manage her husband.

Cec. [smiling] And that you consider as a trifle?

Lady Hon. Yes, if you do but marry a man you don't

care for.

Cec. You are right then, Indeed, to recommend to me my Lord Derford.

Lady hon. O yes, he will make the prettiest husband in the world; you may fly about yourself as wild as a lark, and keep him the whole time as tame as a jackdaw. And tho' he may complain of you to your friends, he will never have the courage to find fault to your face. But as to Mortimer, you will not be able to govern him as long as you live; for the moment you have put him upon the fret, you will fall into the dumps yourself, hold out your hand to him and losing the opportunity of gaining some material point, make up with him at the first soft word.

Cec. You think then the quarrel more amusing than the reconciliation.

Lady Hon. O, a thousand times! for while you are quarrelling you may say any thing, and demand any thing, but when you are reconciled, you ought to behave pretty, and seem contented.

Cec. If airy gentleman has any pretensions to your lady-ship, he must be made very happy indeed to hear your principles.

Lady Hon. O, it would not signify at all; for one's fa thers and uncles and such people always make connections for one; and not a soul thinks of our principles till they find them out by our conduct; and nobody can possibly find them out till we are married, for they give us no pow. er beforehand. The men know nothing of us in the world while we are single, but how we can dance minuet or play a lesson upon the harpsichord.

Del. And what else need a young lady of rank desire to be known for? Your ladyship surely would not have her degrade herself by studying like an artist or professor.

Lady Hon. O, no Sir, I would not have her study at all; it's mighty well for children; but really after sixteen, and when one is come out, one has quite fatigue enough in dressing and going to public places and ordering new things, without all the torment of first and second position, and E upon the first line, and F upon the first space.

Del. But pardon me, Madam, for hinting that a young lady of condition, who has a proper sense of her dignity, cannot be seen too rarely or known too little,