pose his friend to difficulties; we shou'dn't seek for redress, if we are not equal to the task of fighting our own battles; and I choose you particularly to carry my letter, because you may be supposed ignorant of the contents, and thought to be acting only in the ordinary course of your business.

Con. Say no more about it, honey; I will be back with you presently. [Going, returns.) I put the twenty guineas in your pocket, before you were up, sir; and I don't believe you'd look for such a thing there, if I wasn't to tell you of it.

[Exit.

Lees. This faithful, noble hearted creature!-but let me fly from thought; the business I have to ex

ecute will not bear the test of reflection.

Re-enter CONNOLLY.

[Exit.

Con. As this is a challenge, I shou'dn't go without a sword; come down, little tickle-pitcher. [Takes a sword.] Some people may think me very conceited now; but as the dirties black-legs in town can wear one without being stared at, I don't think it can suffer any disgrace by the side of an honest man. [Exit.

SCENE III.

Changes to an Apartment at BELVILLE'S. Enter Mrs. BELVILLE,

Mrs. Bel. How strangely this affair of Mrs. Tempest hangs upon my spirits, though I have every reason, from the tenderness, the politeness, and the ge

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25 nerosity of Mr. Belville, as well as from the woman's behaviour, to believe the whole charge the result of a disturbed imagination.-Yet suppose it should be actually true:-Heigho! -well, suppose it should ;I would endeavour-I think I would endeavour to keep my temper:--a frowning face never recovered a heart that was not to be fixed with a smiling one:but women in general forget this grand article of the matrimonial creed entirely, the dignity of insulted virtue obliges them to play the fool, whenever their Corydons play the libertine, and poh! they must pull down the house about the traitors ears, though they are themselves to be crushed in pieces by the ruins.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Lady Rachel Mildew, madam. [Exit Serv.

Enter Lady RACHEL MILDEW.

Lady Rach. My dear, how have you done since the little eternity of my last seeing you? Mr. Torrington is come to town, I hear.

Mrs. Bel. He is, and must be greatly flattered to find that your ladyship has made him the hero of your new comedy.

Lady Rach. Yes, I have drawn him as he is, an honest practitioner of the law; which is, I fancy, no very common character

Mrs. Bel. And it must be a vast acquisition to the theatre.

C

Lady Rach. Yet the managers of both houses have refused my play; have refused it peremptorily! though I offered to make them a present of it.

Mrs. Bel. That's very surprising, when you offered to make them a present of it.

Lady Rach. They alledge, that the audiences are tired of crying at comedies; and insist that my Despairing Shepherdess is absolutely too dismal for representation.

Mrs. Bel. What, though you have introduced a lawyer in a new light!

Lady Rach. Yes, and have a boarding-school romp, that slaps her mother's face, and throws a bason of scalding water at her governess.

Mrs. Bel. Why surely these are capital jokes!
Lady Rach. But the managers cann't find them out.

However, I am determined to bring it out somewhere; and I have discovered such a treasure for my boarding-school romp, as exceeds the most sanguine expectation of criticism.

Mrs. Bel. How fortunate I

Lady Rach. Going to Mrs. Le Blond, my millener's, this morning, to see some contraband silks, (for you know there's a foreign minister just arrived.) I heard a loud voice rehearsing Juliet from the diningroom; and, upon inquiry, found that it was a country girl just eloped from her friends in town, to go upon the stage with an Irish manager.

Mrs. Bel. Ten to one, the strange woman's niece, who has been here this morning.

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[Aside. Lady Rach. Mrs. Le Blond has some doubts about the manager, it seems, though she has not seen him yet, because the apartments are very expensive, and were taken by a fine gentleman out of livery.

Mrs. Bel. What am I to think of this?--Pray, Lady Rachel, as you have conversed with this young actress, I suppose you could procure me a sight of her ?

Lady Rach. This moment if you will, I am very intimate with her already; but pray keep the matter a secret from your husband, for he is so witty, you know, upon my passion for the drama, that I shall be teased to death by him.

Mrs. Bel. O, you may be very sure that your secret is safe, for I have a most particular reason to keep it from Mr. Belville; but he is coming this way with Captain Savage, let us at present avoid him. [Exeunt.

Enter BELVILLE and Captain SAVAGE.

Capt. You are a very strange man, Belville; you are for ever tremblingly solicitous about the happiness of your wife, yet for ever endangering it by your passion for variety.

Bel. Why, there is certainly a contradiction between my principles and my practice; but if ever you marry, you'll be able to reconcile it perfectly. Possession, Savage! O, possession, is a miserable whetter of the appetite in love! and I own myself so sad a fellow, that though I would not exchange Mrs. Belville's mind for any woman's upon earth, there is

scarcely a woman's person upon earth which is not to me a stronger object of attraction.

Capt. Then, perhaps, in a little time you'll be weary of Miss Leeson?

Bel. To be sure I shall; though, to own the truth, I have not yet carried my point conclusively with the little monkey.

Capt. Why, how the plague has she escaped a moment in your hands?

Bel. By a mere accident. She came to the lodgings, which my man Spruce prepared for her, rather unexpectedly last night, so that i happened to be engaged particularly in another quarter-you understand me-and the damn'd aunt found me so much employment all the morning, that I could only send a message by Spruce, promising to call upon her the first moment I had to spare in the course of the day, Capt. And so you are previously satisfied that you shall be tired of her?

Bel. Tired of her? Why, I am at this moment in pursuit of fresh game, against the hour of satiety :game, that you know to be exquisite and I fancy I shall bring it down, though it is closely guarded by a deal of that pride, which passes for virtue with the generality of your mighty good people.

Capt. Indeed and may a body know this wonder? Bel. You are to be trusted with any thing, for you are the closest fellow I ever knew, and the rack itself would hardly make you discover one of your own secrets to any body What do you think of Miss Walsingham?