SCENE X. Changes to a grand Apartment in Lord AIMWORTH'S House, opening to a view of the Garden. Lord AIMWORTH, FAIRFIELD, PATTY, Ralph. 3 L. Aim. Thus, Master Fairfield, I hope I have fully satisfied you with regard to the falsity of the impu tation thrown upon your daughter and me Fai. My lord, I am very well content; pray do not give yourself the trouble of saying any more. Ral. No, my lord, you need not say any more. 59° L. Aim. I am sorry, Patty, you have had this mortification. Pat. I am sorry, my lord, you have been troubled about it; but really it was against my consent. Fai. 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 pray'rs of me and my family shall always attend you. 600 L. Aim. Miller, come back-Patty, stayFai. Has your lordship any thing further to command us? L. Aim. 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. Fai. Your honour is to do as you please. 610 L. Aim. What say you, Patty, will you accept of a husband of my chusing? Pat. My lord, I have no determination; you are the best judge how I ought to act; whatever you command, I shall obey. L. Aim. Then, Patty, there is but one person I can offer you and I wish, for your sake, he was more deserving-Take me Pat. Sir! L. Aim. From this moment our interests are one, as our hearts; and no earthly power shall ever divide us. 622 Fai. "O the gracious!" Patty-my lord-Did I hear right! —You, sir, you marry a child of mine ! L. Aim. 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, who has alone been wanting to her, I shall be able to set her merit in a light, where its lustre will be rendered conspicuous. 630 Fai. 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 ? Pat. What can I say, father! what answer to such unlook'd-for, such unmerited, such unbounded generosity! -your Ral. Down on your knees, and fall a crying. Pat. Yes, sir, as my father says, considernoble friends, your relations—It must not, cannot be. 640 "L. Aim. It must, and shall-Friends! relations! "from henceforth I have none, that will not acknow❝ledge you!" and I am sure, when they become acquainted with your perfections, those, whose suffrage I most esteem, will rather admire the justice of my choice, than wonder at its singularity." AIR. L. Aim. My life, my joy, my blessing, All must my choice approve : Patty. To you my all is owing; SCENE XI. Enter Sir HARRY, Lady SYCAMORE, THEODOSIA, MERVIN. S. Har. 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. L. Aim. 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. S. Har. My lord! L. Syc. Your lordship's wife! L. Syc. And why so, my lord? 669 L. Aim. 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. S. Har. Well, but you are a peer of the realm; you will have all the fleerers L. Aim. I know very well the ridicule that may be 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. 683 S. Har. 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. L. Syc. 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. 693 L. Aim. 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 purchasing a commission for your son. Ral. What, my lord, will you make me a captain? L. Aim. Ay, a colonel, if you deserve it. Ral. Then I'll keep Fan. 708 |