Fair. Hold your tongue, sirrah! Lord A. I am sorry, Patty, you have had this mortification. Patty. I am sorry, my lord, you have been troubled about it; but really it was against my consent. Fair. Well, come, children, we will not take up his honour's time any longer: let us be going towards home-Heaven prosper your lordship! the prayers of me and my family shall always attend you. Lord A. Miller, come back-Patty, stay. Fair. Has your lordship any thing farther to command us? Lord A. Why, yes, Master Fairfield, I have a word or two still to say to you-In short, though you are satisfied in this affair, I am not; and you seem to forget the promise I made you, that, since I had been the means of losing your daughter one husband, I would find her another. Fair. Your honour is to do as you please. Lord A. What say you, Patty? will you accept of a husband of my choosing? Patty. My lord, I have no determination; you are the best judge how I ought to act: whatever you command, I shall obey. Lord A. Then, Patty, there is but one person I can offer you-and I wish, for your sake, he was more deserving-Take me Patty. Sir! Lord A. From this moment our interests are one, as our hearts; and no earthly power shall ever divide us. Fair. Oh the gracious! Patty-my lord-Did I hear right?-You, sir! you marry a child of mine! Lord A. Yes, my honest old man; in me you behold the husband designed for your daughter: and I am happy that, by standing in the place of fortune, which has alone been wanting to her, I shall be able to set her merit in a light where its lustre will be rendered conspicuous. Fair. But, good, noble sir, pray consider; don't go to put upon a silly old man: my daughter is unworthy-Patty, child, why don't you speak? Patty. What can I say, father? what answer to such unlooked for, such unmerited, such unbounded generosity? Ralph. Down on your knees, and fall a crying. Patty. Yes, sir, as my father says, consider your noble friends, your relations-It must not, cannot be. Lord A. It must, and shall-Friends! relations!from henceforth I have none that will not acknowledge you and I am sure, when they become acquainted with your perfections, those, whose suffrage 1 most esteem, will rather admire the justice of my choice, than wonder at its singularity. Enter SIR HARRY, LADY SYCAMORE, THEODOSIA, and MERVIN. Sir Harry. Well, we have followed your lordship's counsel, and made the best of a bad market-So, my lord, please to know our son-in-law, that is to be. Lord A. You do me a great deal of honour-I wish you joy, sir, with all my heart.—And now, Sir Harry, give me leave to introduce to you a new relation of mine-This, sir, is shortly to be my wife. Sir Harry. My lord! Lady S. Your lordship's wife! Lady S. And why so, my lord? Lord A. Why, 'faith, ma'am, because I can't live happy without her--And I think she has too many amiable, too many estimable qualities, to meet with a worse fate. Sir Harry. Well, but you are a peer of the realm; you will have all the fleerers be Lord A. I know very well the ridicule that may thrown on a lord's marrying a miller's daughter; and I own, with blushes, it has for some time had too great weight with me: but we should marry to please ourselves, not other people; and, on mature consideration, I can see no reproach justly merited, by raising a deserving woman to a station she is capable of adorning, let her birth be what it will. Sir Harry. Why, 'tis very true, my lord.—I once knew a gentleman that married his cook-maid: he was a relation of my own-You remember fat Margery, my lady? She was a very good sort of a woman, indeed she was, and made the best suet dumplings I ever tasted. Lady S. Will you never learn, Sir Harry, to guard your expressions? -Well, but give me leave, my lord, to say a word to you-There are other ill consequences attending such an alliance. Lord A. One of them, I suppose is, that I, a peer, should be obliged to call this good old miller, fatherin-law. But where's the shame in that? He is as good as any lord, in being a man; and if we dare suppose a lord that is not an honest man, he is, in my opinion, the more respectable character. Come, Master Fairfield, give me your hand; from henceforth you have done with working; we will pull down your mill, and build you a house in the place of it; and the money I intended for the portion of your daughter, shall now be laid out in the purchase of a commission for your son. Ralph. What, my lord, will you make me a cap tain ? Lord A. Ay, a colonel, if you deserve it. Enter GILES. Giles. Ods bobs, where am I running?-I beg pardon for my audacity. Ralph. Hip, farmer! come back, mon, come back -Sure my lord's going to marry sister himself; feyther's to have a fine house, and I'm to be a captain. Lord A. Ho, Master Giles, pray walk in: here is a lady, who, I dare say, will be glad to see you, and give orders that you shall always be made welcome. Ralph. Yes, Farmer, you'll always be welcome in the kitchen. Lord A. What, have you nothing to say to your old acquaintance?- Come, pray let the farmer salute you-Nay, a kiss, I insist upon it. Sir Harry. Ha! ha! ha!-hem! Lady S. Sir Harry, I am ready to sink at the monstrousness of your behaviour! Lord A. Fie, Master Giles, don't look so sheepish; you and I were rivals, but not less friends at present. You have acted in this affair like an honest English man, who scorned even the shadow of dishonour, and thou shalt sit rent-free for a twelvemonth. Sir Harry. Come, sha'n't we all salute?—With your leave, my lord, I'll Lady S. Sir Harry! AIR. Lord A. Yield who will to forms a murtyr, Theod. While, unawed by idle shame, Have a right from man to claim. Eased of doubts and fears presaging, Sir Harry. Dad, but this is wondrous pretty, Patty. Though I scarce know what to say. My example is a rare one; But the cause may be divined: |