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Cec. Could I have hesitated?

Delv. Most generous of beings, ftill then be mine! By our economy, we will make favings to pay off our mortgages and clear our eftates. I will ftill keep my name to which my family is bigoted, and my gratitude for your compliance fhall make you forget what you lofe by the change of yours.

Scene between CECILIA BEVERLY and a GENTLEMAN.

Gent. I PRESUME, Madam, you are the lady of this

houfe. May I take the liberty to afk your name?

Cec. My name, Sir!

Gent. You will do me a favor by telling it to me.

Cec. Is it poffible, Sir, you are come hither, without alrea dy knowing it?

Gent. I know it only by common report, Madam.

Cec. Common report, Sir, I believe is feldom wrong in matter where it is fo eafy to be right.

Gent. Have you any objection madam to telling me your

name?

Gec. No, Sir, but your bufinefs can hardly be very important, if you are yet to learn whom you are to addrefs. It will be time enough, therefore for us to meet when you have elfewhere learnt my name. (going.) Gent. I beg, madam, you will have patience! it is necessary before I can open my bufinefs that I fhould hear your name from yourself.

Cec. Why, Sir, I think you can fcarcely have come to this house, without knowing that its owner is Cecilia Beverly. Gent. That, Madam, is your maiden name.

Cec. My maiden name! (Jurprized.)

Gent. Are you not married, Madam?

Cec. Married, Sir?

Gent. It is more properly Madam the name of your bufband, that I mean to ask.

Cec. And by what authority, Sir, do you make these extraordinary enquiries?

Gent. I am deputed, Madam, by Mr. Egglefton, who is next heir to your uncle's eftate, if you die without children, or change your name when you marry. I am authorised by letter of attorney from him to make thefe enquiries, and I prefume, Madam, you will not deny its authority. He has

been credibly informed, you are married; and as you contin ue to be called Mifs Beverly he wishes to know your intentions as he is deeply interested in knowing the truth.

Cec. This demand, Sir, is fo extremely-(flammering) lo fo little expected

Gent. The better way, Madam, in thefe cafes, is to keep clofe to the point. Are you married, or are you not?

Cec. This is dealing very plainly, indeed, Sir. ButGent. It is, Madam; and very ferioufly too; but it is a bufinefs of no flight concern. Mr. Eggleston has a large family and a fmall fortune, and that much encumbered.It cannot therefore be expected that he will fee himself wronged by your enjoying an eftate to which he is entitled.

very

Cec. Mr. Eggleston, Sir, has nothing to fear from impofition. Those with whom he has or may have any transactions in this affair, are not ufed to practice fraud.

Gent. I am far from meaning any offenfe, Madam; my commiffion from Mr. Eggleston is fimply this; to beg you will fatisfy him upon what ground you now evade the will of your late uncle; which, till explained, appears to be a point much to his prejudice.

Cec. Tell him then, Sir, that whatever he wishes to know, fhall be explained in about a week. At prefent I can give no other anfwer.

Gent. Very well, madam, he will wait till that time, I am fure; for he does not wish to put you to any inconvenience. But when he heard the gentleman was gone abroad without owning his marriage, he thought it high time to take fome notice of the matter.

Cec. Pray, Sir, let me afk, how you came to any knowl. edge of this affair?

Gent. I heard it Madam, from Mr. Eggleston himself, who has long known it.

Cee. Long, Sir-impoffible !-it is not yet a fortnightnet e days, or not more, that

Gent. That, Madam, may perhaps be difputed; for when this business comes to be fettled, it will be very effential to be exact as to the time, even to the very hour; for the income of the eftate is large, Madam; and if your husband keeps his own name, you must not only give up your uncle's inheritance, from the time of changing your name; but refund the profits from the very day of your marriage.

Cec. There is not the least doubt of that, nor will the least difficulty be made.

Gent. Pleafe then to recollect, Madam, that the fum to be refunded is every hour increafing, and has been ever fince laft September, which made a half year to be accounted for laft March. Since then there is now added

Cec. For mercy's fake, Sir, what calculations are you making out? Do you call last week, laft September?

Gent. No, Madam; but I call laft September the month in which you was married.

Cec. You will then find yourself extremely mistaken; and Mr. Egglefton is preparing himfelf for much difappointment, if he fuppofes me fo long in arrears with him.

Gent. Mr. Eggleston, Madam, happens to be well inform ed of this tranfaction, as you will find, if any difpute should arife in the cafe. He was the next occupier of the houfe you hired laft September; the woman who kept it informed him that the last perfon who hired it was a lady who ftayed one day only, and came to town, fhe found merely to be married. On enquiry he difcovered that the lady was Mifs Beverly. Cec. You will find all this, Sir, end in nothing.

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

Gec. They may feem fo, Sir, but all conclufions drawn from them will be erroneous: I was not married then, upon my honor.

Gent. We have little to do, Madam, with profeffions; the circumftances are strong enough to bear trial-and

Cec. A trial!—

Gent. We have found many witneffes to prove a number of particulars, and eight months fhare of fuch an estate as this, is well worth a little trouble.

Gec. I am amazed, Sir; furely Mr. Eggleton never authorifed you to make use of this language to me.

Gent. Mr Eggleton, Madam, has behaved very honora bly tho' he knew the whole affair, he fuppofed Mr. Delvill

had good reafons for a fhort 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 doubtlefs be fatisfied without threatening or law fuits.

Gent. The truth is, Madam, Mr. Eggleston is a little embarraffed for want of fome money. This makes it a poiat with him, to have the affair fettled speedily, unless you choose to compromife, by advancing a particular fum, till it fuits 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 compromife to make. As to the premises, I will quit them as foon as poffible.

Gent. You will do well, Madam, for the truth is, it will not be convenient for him to wait any longer. [He goes out.] Cec. How weak and blind have I been, to form a secret plan of defrauding the heir to my uncle's estate! am betrayed and I deferve it. Never, never more will I difgrace my

felf by fuch an act.

Scene between CECILIA and HENRIETTA.

Cecina. WHAT 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 poffible I would give you nothing but pleasure and joy.

Hen. Ah, Madam, why will you fay fo, when you don't care what becomes of me! When you are going to caft me off! and when you will foon be too happy to think of me more !

Cec. If I am never happy till them, fad 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 welcomeft gueft in my houfe, but for thofe unhappy circumstances which make our feparating inevitable.

Hen. Yet you fuffered me, Madam, to hear from any body that you was married and going away; and all the common fervants 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 faid all the fervants there talked of nothing elfe, and that their mafter was to come and take poffeffion here next Thursday.

Cec. Yet you envy me, tho I am forced to leave my houfe! 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 you are married to him, Madam !

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

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

Cec. O Henrietta! Should I ever repine at my fituation, I will call to mind this heroic declaration of yours and blusk for my own weaknefs.

Scene between DR. LYSTER, MR. DELVILL, MR. MORTI MER DELVILL and CECILIA his wife, and LADY HO

NORIA.

Dr. Lyfter. My good friends, in the courfe of my long prac

tice, I have found it impoffible to ftudy the human frame, without looking a little into the mind; and from all that I have yet been able to make out, either by obfervation, reflection or comparifon, it appears to me at this moment, that Mr. Mortimer Delvill has got the beft wife, and you, Sir, [To Mr. Delvell] the most faultlefs daughter-in-law, that any husband father-in-law in the kingdom can have or defire.

or any

Lady Hon. When you fay the best and most faultless, Dr. Lyfter, you should always add, the reft of the company excepted. Dr. Lyf. Upon my word, I beg your Ladyfhip's pardon; but fometimes 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 finking deeper and deeper; I had hopes the town air had taught you better things; but I find you have vifited Delvill caftle, till you are fit for no other place.

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