Miss Syl. Your invitation is confessedly for a particular purpose it is therefore proper that I should consider how far I can, with propriety, take any part in the plot.

Syl. This insolence is not to be endured.

Lady W. Be you quiet-Miss Sylvan is right if she suspect us.

Miss Syl. And he is very bad if there be any cause. Give me time to think of this, and your ladyship shall have my answer before dinner.

Lady W. At all events I expect you at Waryford House in the evening.

Miss Syl. I shall be ruled by circumstances.

Lady W. O you must come-till then, at farthest, adieu, my dear friend.

Miss Syl. Adieu.

END OF ACT 1.

ACT II.

SCENE I. A Library in Waryford House.

Count LA COUR and Lady WARYFORD.

La Cour. You must be cautious and vigilant as Argus. Who could have thought that the listless Waryford should have been so roused by the sneer of a newspaper gossip? You must abandon Sylvan.

Lady W. There is no danger—this energy in Waryford is like the effect of galvanism, a twitch in the eye and a start in the limb, but the subject is dead. Trust me, La Cour, Sylvan has no interest in my heart; but while he helps my pecuniary wants, it is fair that he should have something for his money, and the vain creature is content with familiar notice.

La Cour. But consider the value of your reputation: he may not always be content with empty smiles: he may ask what the world believes he has already.

Lady W. That thought implies a doubt of my affection.

Can you, who are so dear to me, so doubt of my fidelity?

La Cour: Think not of me-think only of yourself.Lord Waryford is not the sort of easy man that I thought he was-His quickness this morning has alarmed me— His indifferency is, I fear, negligence, not indolence. He has often threatened you with a separation-Such an event, at this time, would be as fatal as a divorce.

Lady W. How? In what way could it affect your place in my affection?

La Cour. You would be excluded from the worldshut out from all those friends, on whose profitable acquaintance I chiefly depend. I cannot, Angelica, afford to deal with damaged quality. The purse grows light as the reputation fails, and the stinted stipends of second-hand wives afford nothing for a poor dog like me. But see, your husband is coming this way, and we must be speaking of other things.-No, it will not do; that character is not suitable to the appearance of your Ladyship.

[Enter LORD WARYFORD.]

Come in the crisis of debate, my Lord. I am in vain attempting to convince your Countess, that the character which she speaks of assuming this evening will not suit her Ladyship.

Lord W. Pray what is it?

Lady W. I was thinking of the vestal.

Lord W. You! you a vestal! No, no, that will indeed not suit. The Count is a man of taste. Take Calista rather, it would be much better.

La Cour. Aye, the fair penitent.

Lord W. Would she could act it well!

La Cour. Or Cleopatra.

Lord W. Fie, Count, O fie! to think that her Ladyship would play the part of a faithless

Better understood

than described. But, Count, what character take you yourself?

La Cour. My old blue domino must serve again.

Lady W. Do, for goodness' sake, get another-you have looked blue long enough.

Lord W. That was a poor pun, love. But, La Cour, to please her Ladyship, you shall have a new one. What colour shall it be?

Lady W. Red, Count, let it be red.

Lord W. To help the blushes of his gratitude.

La Cour. Your Lordship is witty to-day.

Lady W. I cannot suffer this any longer. La Cour,

your arm.

Lord W. Shall it be scarlet?

La Cour. As you please.

Lord W. [whispers La Cour.] Find out what disguise Sylvan comes in.

La Cour. Depend on me.

[Exeunt Lady W. and La Cour.

Lord W. A precious pair!

[Exit Lord W.

SCENE II. ́A Room.

VOLUME solus.

What shall I do? The life of a reviewer is, alas! far from being a safe one. My back has scarcely yet forgotten the horse-whipping, which I received from an enraged author, for a libel, which, in a malicious moment, I had unfortunately written. The same cruel wretch has de

prived me of half the pleasures of life, by threatening to publish the affair. I dare not look into the newspapers, lest the vile story of my abjectness be in them-I dare not assist at the damning of a new play, lest I see myself on the stage, and, with the horrid mimicry of dramatic extravagance, thus declaring my ill-starred destiny in soliloquy.

[Enter LA COUR.]

Well, Count, what speed? What says her Ladyship?—will she intercede ?-shall I get the place? Not a word?

La Cour. I am exceedingly sorry to be obliged to tell you, that she declines to interfere.

Vol. Not interfere! Why does she refuse?

La Cour. Motives of delicacy. She

[whispers.]

Fol. O the worthless woman; just as I stood in need of her patronage, to allow herself to be found out. La Cour. But I do not yet despair.

Vol. I'm glad of that.

La Cour. There is an instrument, which, skilfully -employed, can remove greater obstacles, as well as mountains. You must use it-Lord Waryford is but a man

and all men have their price.

Vol. Must he be bribed?

Alas! all I have in the world will go but a little way towards the purchase of a Lord.

La Cour. But there are other things that do as well as gold.

Vol. That's very true; paper does as well; but, Count, the law the law!

La Cour. You misunderstand me-I do not allude to money. Money, my friend, is the meanest of all things; there is nothing so mean that money is not given away for. Those, therefore, who go to the moral market with that commodity, only show their ignorance of the trade. Flatmust be your's.