La. Frank. Keep your temper, child; your cafe is not yet defperate.- -Now wou'd not any one swear that man was really unhappy? So difconfolate, fo fighing, and all for the lofs of a woman! Had he been a year or two married, he would have learnt to have borne a lofs of this kind with more philofophical refignation.Brother, nay prithee, brother, is it the ill ufage of friends, or of your mistress that touches you? Ld. Court. 'Tis not that I am fo unexperienc'd in public business, as to expect that every promife fhould be comply'd with; but 'tis hard, fifter, that one of my confequence thou'd be treated like a common country: gentleman. La. Frank. Have you not told me, child, that Mr. Barter influences your husband in every thing?. muft make that man our friend. -We La. Willit. Never think of it.Had it not been for that meddling fool, mine had never once thought of his debts, nor the family been in this confufion. La. Frank. Yet there may be ways of foftening him. La. Frank. Pardon me, madam. La. Frank. Have not you obfery'd, that he and I of late are very well together?He makes up to me upon alloccafions.We only afk him, child, to fpeak and act contrary to his opinion; trifles that, my brother knows, are every day got the better of in things of greater confequence. What offers hath he refus'd? hath he ever been rightly apply'd to? La. Willit. But then that curfed devil of a girl Friendlefs, is fo set against me. La. Frank. Now I really don't think the girl, in common juftice to herself, should part with her intereft in mifs Sprightly for nothing-My brother ought to have offer'd her fome fort of civility. As the intereft with our friends is a faleable commodity, pray, why should not the make the best of it too? Ld. Court. Without doubt it hath been a shameful omiffion. La. Willit. La. Willit. Now is it pot aftonishing, madam, that that hideous girl fhould ever be of confequence enough to be brib'd? 'Tis ridiculous. Ld. Court. That, madam, shall be my affair. La. Frank. You are now, my dear, in the right way. La. Willit. What a ling'ring death have you fav'd me from! Fetch, tell my coufin Jenny to come to me immediately. -Lady Frankair and I, my lord, will leave you to manage that aukward creature-"Twou'd make one mad to think that fuch a wretch fhould thrive upon my diftreffes. Enter Mifs Friendless. La. Frank. Don't you think the gil prodigioufly gen-. teel to-day -Come hither, child.-I never faw a head more becoming. This is a mighty pretty filk, mifs Friendlefs; the fleeve too is fo eafy.-Was this apron, child, of your own work? Friendl. Your ladyfhip's civility is fo like flattery, that it puts me in confufion.-I am fo unacquainted with both of 'em, that 'tis hard for me to diftinguish one from t'other. La. Willit. Now wou'd any body imagine by that creature's looks, that he had fo much mischief and malice within her? [To lady Frankair. Ld. Court. The diftinctions mifs Sprightly fhews you, are to me indifputable proofs of your merit. [To Friendless. La. Frank. I differ with you, madam: Sprightly, in my opinion, does not want fenfe. Mifs [To lady Willit. La. Willit. And yet he feems to think love the moft reasonable motive to marriage-Now is that like 4. woman of common understanding?-The girl is unac countable.. La. Frank. Our laft conversation must have had fome effect upon her. La. Willit. Is mifs Sprightly, coufin Jenny, in her own room? Friendl. I left her there, madam. La. Willit. Let us fet upon her once again: the is e only woman I ever knew that another woman could not not find out; though we are fuch riddles to men, we are not fuch myfterious things to one another.] · leave you, coufin Jenny, to entertain lord Courtlove. [Exeunt lady Willit, and lady Frankair. Ld. Court. Thofe eyes! were not my heart already engag'd, I must have lov'd now. Friendl. I am unus'd to flattery, my lord; 'tis thrown away upon me, for I have not yet learnt that eafy happy faith, to join with every flatterer in flattering myself. Ld. Court. That modefty, madam, is too fevere, which takes offence at truth.- You cannot be a Atranger to my paffion, who enjoy the intimacies of a converfation, which (though you deserve) I always envy. -Were your friendship to fecond my address to mifs Sprightly, it could not poffibly fail of fuccefs. Friendl. Your lordship's ear perhaps is as little acquainted with truth as mine is with flattery; fo that to one of your rank I cannot be fo ill-bred, to speak it without permiffion. Pardon me, then, my lord, if I am not of your opinion. Ld. Court. I know you could do it, mils Jenny. Friendl. I fhould deceive your lordship, if I did not diffuade you from this purfuit. Ld. Court. Would the but let me know her objections. Friendl. As in this cafe they generally depend upon fancy and caprice, a woman either can't give 'em, or won't give 'em. Ld. Court. I know, mifs, you have good-nature; I know too the credit you have with her -Might I hope for your good offices, you thould not find me ungrate ful. Friendl. What do you mean, my lord? Ld. Court. Mean, madam!I faid I would not be ungrateful. Friendl. Have I ever call'd your gratitude in queftion, my lord? Ld. Court. I thought the courtly phrase of tranfacting business had been better understood. Friendl. But why are you so mysterious? Ld. Courte Ld. Court. I mean then, madam, (you must pardon me) that the thing fhall turn out to your own intereft too. Friendl. To my intereft! Ld. Court. A thoufand guineas, or a diamond ring of that value. Friendl. For what? To fell my friend? were I a man you wou'd not have had the courage to have offer'd me this affront. Ld. Court. Excufe me, madam; 'tis an affront that men of the greatest distinction pocket up without the leaft fcruple. Friendl. Is it because I want fortune you prefume to ufe me thus ?- -Which of us two thinks the other the most contemptible? Ld. Court. The prefent is not fo inconfiderable, but the richest perfon might have accepted it. Friendl. A man who wou'd bribe me to be his friend (by tacitly calling me a knave) very juffly makes me his enemy. Could I ferve you, were I inclin'd to ferve you, my honour would now forbid me. Enter Fetch. Fetch. My lady, and lady Frankair are in the drawing-room, and defire your lordship's company immediately. Ld. Court. I hope, mifs, you will think more favourably of me, and not mifinterpret a civility. [Exit Friendl. Is mifs Sprightly alone, Mrs. Fetch? Fetch. My lady bid me charge you not to fir from this room till the fent for you.-You had beft not provoke her; for miís yonder, hath put her most horridly out of humour. Enter Mifs Sprightly. Spright. I have left my aunt like a woman diftracted: the thinks me very unreasonable that I won't be married for her conveniency; now I think a woman runs a fufficient rifque who marries for her own. Friendl. Your lover hath been juft now offering me proofs of his good opinion of you, and his ill opinion of me; for he would have brib'd handfomely for you. Spright. Spright. I am sure, child, he must hold thy parts in prodigious contempt:' -"Tis the great commerce of the world: for a man of rank or figure is above felling any thing but his friend,-or himself. Friendl. How can you divert yourself by being worried every day of your life? -Have you put an end to it at last by a peremptory anfwer? Spright. My uncle, I find, holds his refolution of going into the country, and then there's an end of all his wife's fchemes at once.. 'Tis a fphere that flints the genius of an extravagant affected woman.Incli nation may be the fanie, but opportunities must be wanting; and the cannot have thofe frequent temptations of making herfelf and her husband fo confpicuoufly ridiculous. Friendl. The want of fortune is felt so severely in no condition of life, as in being oblig'd to a proud imperious relation. While he is talking to me, I am in fuch awe, that my very reafon is not my own places my circumftance must be the fame. Spright. You will always find a friend in me. In all Spright. That lady Frankair hath been the poor woman's ruin. Friendl. She affects her phrafes. Spright. Her very vices, like an imitating poet. Friendl. Then, without the common fkill or views of a gamefter, the plays immoderately.. Spright. And 'tis by that (if I mistake not) lady Frankair pays herself for her instructions. Friendl. Now were I a man, I fhould be the most jealous of my wife's women-companions. Spright. She is over-run with affectation; fhe is an akward copy of that very woman, or rather of every nan of fashion.-Why does the paint? not that she wants a complection, but because lady Flareit does it. -Why are all the fops in town admitted to her toilette? Because the hath feen 'em at lady Frankair's. -Why are common cheats and fharpers admitted among her vifitors? Because the hath feen the particular civilities shown 'em at lady Quadrille's.-She is afham'd of going to church, becaufe lady Frankair hath no religion. Then |