[Going. amaz'd you are home, if a woman has any prudence, why-fhe'll go abroad 'till he comes to himself again. Lord T. Hold, Madam-I am not more uneafy at the life you lead. You don't want fenfe, and yet feem void of all humanity; for, with a blush I say it, I think I have not wanted love. Lady T. Oh, don't say that, my Lord, if you fuppose I have my fenfes. Lord T. What is it I have done to you? What can you complain of ? Lady T. Oh, nothing in the leaft! 'Tis true, you have heard me fay, I have owed my Lord Lurcher an hundred pounds these three weeks-but what then -a hufband is not liable to his wife's debts of honour, you know-and if a filly woman will be uneafy about money fhe can't be fued for, what's that to him? As long as he loves her, to be fure, she can have nothing to complain of. Lord T. If my whole fortune, Madam, thrown. into your lap, could make you delight in the cheerful duties of a wife, I fhould think myfelf a gainer by the purchase. Lady T. That is, my Lord, I might receive your whole eftate, provided you were fure I would not spend a fhilling of it. Lord T. No, Madam; were I master of your heart, your pleasures would be mine; but, different as they are, I'll feed even your follies, to deferve it-Perhaps you may have some other trifling debts of honour abroad, that keep you out of humour at home-at least it shall not be my fault, if I have not more of your company -There, there's a bill of five hundred-and now, Madam Lady T. And now, my Lord, down to the ground I thank you-Now am I convinced, were I weak enough to love this man, I fhould never get a fingle guinea from him. 【Afide. Lord T. If it be no offence, Madam→→→ Lady T. Say what you please my Lord; I am in that harmony of fpirits, it is impoffible to put me out of humour. Lord T. How long, in reason, then do you think that fum ought to last you? Lady T. Oh, my dear, dear Lord! now you have fpoiled all again: how is it poffible I should answer for an event that fo utterly depends upon fortune? But to fhew you that I am more inclined to get money than to throw it away--I have a strong poffeffion, that with this five hundred, I fhall win five thousand. Lord T. Madam, if you were to win ten thousand, it would be no fatisfaction to me. Lady T. Oh, the churl! ten thousand! what! not fo much as wish I might win ten thousand! Ten thousand! Oh, the charming fum! what infinite pretty things might a woman of fpirit do with ten thousand guineas! O' my confcience, if fhe were a woman of true fpirit-fhe-fhe might lose them all again. Lord T. And I had rather it fhould be fo, Madam, provided I could be fure that were the laft you would lofe. Lady Lady T. Well, my Lord, to let you fee I defign to play all the good house-wife I can; I am now going to a party at quadrille, only to piddle with a little of it, at poor two guineas a fifh, with the Duchefs of Quiteright. [Exit. Lord T. Infenfible creature! neither reproaches or indulgence, kindness or feverity, can wake her to the leaft reflection! LADY GRACE AND LADY TOWNLEY, Lady T. Oh, my dear Lady Grace! how could you leave me fo unmercifully alone all this while? Lady G. I thought my Lord had been with you. Lady T. Why yes, and therefore I wanted your re has been in fuch a flufter here lief; for he Lady G. Blefs me! for what? Lady T. Only our ufual breakfaft; we have each of us had our dish of matrimonial comfort this morningWe have been charming company. Lady G. I am mighty glad of it: fure it must be a waft happiness, when a man and a wife can give themfelves the fame turn of conversation! Lady T. Oh, the prettiest thing in the world! Lady G. Now I fhould be afraid, that where two people are every day together fo, they must often be in want of fomething to talk upon. Lady T. Oh, my dear, you are the most mistaken in the world! married people have things to talk of, child, that never enter into the imaginations of others. Why, here's my Lord and I, now, we have not been married above two fhort years, you know, and we have already eight or ten things conftantly in bank, that whenever we want company, we can take up any one of them for two hours together, and the fubject never the flatter: nay, if we have occafion for it, it will be as fresh next day, too, as it was the first hour it entertained us. Lady G. Certainly that must be vaftly pretty. Lady T. Oh, there's no life like it! Why, t'other day, for example, when you dined abroad, my Lord and I, after a pretty cheerful tete a tete meal, fat us down by the fire fide, in an cafy, indolent, pick-tooth way, for about a quarter of an hour, as if we had not thought of any other's being in the room At last, ftretching himself, and yawning-My dear-fays heaw -you came home very late, last night- 'Twas but just turned of two says I-—I was in bed- -aw -by eleven, fays he-So you are every night, fays 1-Well, fays he, I am amazed you can fit up fo late -How can you be amazed, fays I, at a thing that happens fo often ?-Upon which we entered into a converfation-and though this is a point has entertained us above fifty times already, we always find fo many pretty new things to fay upon it, that I believe in my foul, it will last as long as we live. Lady G. But pray, in fuch fort of family dialogues, (though extremely well for paffing the time) don't there, now and then, enter fome little witty fort of bitterness? Lady Lady T. Oh, yes! which does not do amifs at all. A fmart repartee, with a zest of recrimination at the head of it, makes the prettiest fherbet. Ay, ay; if we did not mix a little of the acid with it, a matrimonial fociety would be fo ridiculous, that it would be impoffible to bear it. Lady G. Well-certainly you have the most elegant tafte Lady T. Though to tell you the truth, my dear, I rather think we fqueezed a little too much lemon into to it, this bout! for it grew fo four at laft, that——— I think -I almoft told him he was a fool again-talked fomething oddly of of doors. Lady G. Oh, have a care of that! and he, turning me out Lady T. Nay, if he fhould, I may thank my own wife father for that Lady G. How fo? Lady T. Why when my good Lord first opened his honourable trenches before me, my unaccountable papa, in whose hands I then was, gave me up at dif cretion. Lady G. How do you mean? Lady T. He faid, the wives of this age were come to that pafs, that he would not defire even his own daughter should be trufted with pin-money; fo that my whole train of separate inclinations are left entirely at the mercy of a husband's odd humours. Lady G. Why, that, indeed, is enough to make a woman of spirit look about her. |