Bel. Your patience for a moment. I was informed you was about to join your regiment in distant quarters abroad. Mrs. F. Oh, was that all? I thought how it would Dud. I believe so too: have you any other busi rn out-A likely thing, truly, for a person of hisness with me, may I ask? liging, compassionate turn: no, no, poor Captain udley, he has sorrows and distresses enough of his -wn to employ his spirits, without setting them rainst other people. Make it up as fast as you Dud. I have been soliciting an exchange to a in: watch this gentleman vat; follow him wher-company of full pay, quartered at James' Fort, in er he goes, and bring me word who and what he Senegambia; but I'm afraid I must drop the under; be sure you don't lose sight of him; I've other taking. usiness in hand. Exit. Bel. Why so, pray? Bel. Pray, sir, what sorrows and distresses have Lefallen this old gentleman you speak of? Ful. Poverty, disappointment, and all the dis-particular in all this." esses attendant thereupon: sorrow enough of all onscience: I soon found how it was with him, by is way of living, low enough of all reason; but hat I overheard this morning put it out of all oubt. Bel. What did you overhear this morning? Ful. Why, it seems he wants to join his reginent, and has been beating the town over to raise a ittle money for that purpose upon his pay; but the climate, I find, where he is going is so unhealthy, that nobody can be found to lend him any. Bel. Why then your town is a d-d good-fornothing town: and I wish I had never come into it. Ful. That's what I say, sir; the hard-heartedness of some folks is unaccountable. There's an old Lady Rusport, a near relation of this gentleman's; he lives hard by here, opposite to Stockwell's, the great merchant; he sent to her a-begging, but to o purpose; though she is as rich as a Jew, she would not furnish him with a farthing. Bel. Is the Captain at home? Bel. Will you take the trouble to desire him to. tep hither? I want to speak to him. Dud. Why so, sir? "Tis a home question, for a perfect stranger to put; there is something very Bel. If it is not impertinent, sir, allow me to ask you what reason you have for despairing of success? Dud. Why, really, sir, mine is an obvious reason, for a soldier to have-Want of money; simply that. Bel. May I beg to know the sum you have occasion for? Dud. Truly, sir, I cannot exactly tell you on a sudden; nor is it, I suppose, of any great consequence to you to be informed: but I should guess, in the gross, that two hundred pounds would serve. Bel. And you find a difficulty in raising that sum upon your pay? 'tis done every day. Dud. The nature of the climate makes it difficult; I can get no one to insure my life. Bel. Oh! that's a circumstance may make for you, as well as against; in short, Captain Dudley, it so happens, that I can command the sum of two hundred pounds: seek no further; I'll accommodate you with it upon easy terms. Dud. Sir! do I understand you rightly?-I beg your pardon; but am I to believe that you are in earnest? Bel. What is your surprise? Is it an uncommon thing for a gentleman to speak truth? Or is it incredible that one fellow-creature should assist another? Dud. I ask your pardon-May I beg to know to whom?-Do you propose this in the way of business? Bel. Entirely: I have no other business on earth. Dud. Indeed! you are not a broker, I'm per Bel. I am not. Ful. I'll send him to you directly. I don't know what to make of this young man; but, if I live, I will find him out, or know the reason why. [Exit. Bel. I've lost the girl, it seems, that's clear: she was the first object of my pursuit; but the case of his poor officer touches me; and, after all, there may be as much true delight in rescuing a fellow-suaded. creature from distress, as there would be in plungng one into it.—But let me see: it's a point that must be managed with some delicacy. Apropos! here's pen and ink-I've struck upon a method hat will do. [Writes.] Ay, ay, this is the very thing: 'twas devilish lucky I happened to have these bills about me. There, there, fare you well! I'm glad to be rid of you; you stood a chance of being worse applied, I can tell you. [Incloses and seals the paper. Dud. Have you any commands for me, sir? Dud. It is. Dud. Nor an army agent, I think? Bel. I hope you will not think the worse of me for being neither; in short, sir, if you will peruse this paper, it will explain to you who I am, and upon what terms I act; while you read it, I will step home, and fetch the money: and we will conclude the bargain without loss of time. In the meanwhile, good day to you. [Exit hastily. Dud. Humph! there's something very odd in all this-let me see what we've got here-This paper is to tell me who he is, and what are his terms: in the name of wonder, why has he sealed it? Heyday! what's here? Two bank notes, of a hundred each! I can't comprehend what this means. Hold; here's a writing, perhaps that will show me. Accept this trifle; pursue your fortune and prosper. Bel. You command a company, I think, Captain Am I in a dream? is this a reality? Dudley? Dud. I did: I am now upon half-pay. Bel. You have served some time? Dud. A pretty many years; long enough to see some people of more merit, and better interest than myself, made general officers. Bel. Their merit I may have some doubt of; their nterest I can readily give credit to; there is little promotion to be looked for in your profession, I beDeve, without friends, Captain? Enter MAJOR O'FLAHERTY. O'Fla. 'Save you, my dear! Is it you now that are Captain Dudley, I would ask? Erit DUDLEY.] Whuh! What's the hurry the man's in? If 'tis the lad that run out of the shop you would overtake, you might as well stay where you are; by my soul he's as nimble as a Croat; you are a full hour's march in his rear.-Ay faith, you may as well turn back, and give over the pursuit. 736 Re-enter Dudley. contents? O'Fla. Not at all, my dear; not at all. Dud. Have you any message from Lady Rusport? O'Fla. Not a syllable, honey: only when you've digested the letter, I've a little bit of a message to deliver you from myself. Dud. And may I beg to know who yourself is? O'Fla. Dennis O'Flaherty, at your service; a poor major of grenadiers: nothing better. Dud. So much for your name and title, sir; now be so good as to favour me with your message. O'Fla. Why, then, Captain, I must tell you, I have promised Lady Rusport you shall do whatever it is she bids you to do in that letter there. Dud. Ay, indeed! have you undertaken so much, Major, without knowing either what she commands, or what I can perform? O'Fla. That's your concern, my dear, not mine; I must keep my word, you know. Dud. Or else, I suppose, you and I must measure swords. O'Fla. Upon my soul you've hit it. Dud. That would hardly answer to either of us : you and I have, probably, had enough of fighting in our time, before now. what I know, they are all alive and menyu a very hour. Ďud. Well, sir, go on, and prosper; if you m inspire Lady Rusport with half your chai, I think you deserve all her fortune; at p | must beg your excuse: good morning to ya O'Fla. A good, sensible man, and very mu a soldier: I did not care if I was better acq with him; but 'tis an awkward kind of con that: the English, I observe, are close friends distant acquaintance. I suspect the old late not been over generous to poor Dudrey; give her a little touch about that. Upturn know but one excuse a person can have gr; nothing, and that is, like myself, having give. SCENE II.-Lady Rusport's House. A dr. του πι. Enter MISS RUSPORT and LUCY. Miss R. Well, Lucy, you've dislodged the lady at last; but methought you was a tedious E about it. Lucy. A tedious time, indeed; I think they wa have least to spare, contrive to throw the away; I thought I should never have got her v of the house: then, madam, this being a visit! great ceremony to a person of distinction at the west end of the town, the old state chariot was brought forth on the occasion, with strict charges to dress out the box with the leopard skin hammer cloth. Miss R. Yes; and to hang the false tails on the miserable stumps of the old crawling cattle: well, pray heaven, the old crazy affair don't s down again with her, at least till she gets to her journey's end.-But where's Charles Dudley? Bun down, dear girl, and be ready to let him in; I think he's as long in coming, as she was in going. Lucy. Why, indeed, madam, you seem the more alert of the two, I must say. O'Fla. Faith and troth, master Dudley, you may say that; 'tis thirty years, come the time, that I have followed the trade, and in a pretty many countries. Let me see-In the war before last, I served in the Irish brigade, d'ye see; there, after bringing off the French monarch, I left his service, with a British bullet in my body, and this riband Miss R. Now the deuce take the girl, for putting in my button-hole. Last war I followed the for- that notion into my head: I am sadly afraid Deterg tunes of the German eagle, in the corps of gre-dees not like me; so much encouragement as I ha nadiers; there I had my bellyful of fighting, and a After six-given him to declare himself, I never cold pers plentiful scarcity of every thing else. word from him on the subject: this may be and twenty engagements, great and small, I went honourable, but, upon my life, it's very provinc off with this gash on my skull, and a kiss of the By the way, I wonder how I look to-day empress queen's sweet hand, (heaven bless it!) for shockingly! hideously pale! like a witch tha my pains. Since the peace, my dear, I took a little the old lady's glass, and she has left some of Le turn with the confederates there in Poland; but wrinkles on it. How frightfully have I par such another set of madcaps !-by the Lord Harry, I never knew what it was they were scuffling about. cap! all awry!-and my hair dressed se Dud. Well, major, I won't add another action to ing! altogether, I'm a most complete fright the list; you shall keep your promise_with_Lady Enter CHARLES, unobserved. Rusport: she requires me to leave London; I shall Charles. That I deny. go Miss R. Ah! in a few days, and you may take what credit you please from my compliance. O'Fla. Give me your hand, my dear boy! this will make her my own; when that's the case, we shall be brothers, you know, and we'll share her fortune between us. Dud. Not so, Major; the man who marries Lady Rusport, will have a fair title to her whole fortune without division: but I hope your expectations of prevailing are founded upon good reasons. O'Fla. Upon the best grounds in the world; first, I think she will comply, because she is a woman; secondly, I am persuaded she won't hold out long, because she is a widow; and thirdly, I make sure of her, because I have married five wives [en militaire, Captain,) and never failed yet; and for Charles. Quarrelling with your glass, tran Make it up, make it up, and be friends; it compliment you more than by reflect.ng y are. Miss R. Well, I vow, my dear Charles, th delightfully said, and deserves my very best ca your flattery, like a rich jewel, has a value t from its superior lustre, but from its extr scarceness: I verily think, this is the cyc speech you ever directed to my person Charles. And I ought to ask pardon of year! sense, for having done it now. Miss R. Nay, now you relapse again; de:'know, if you keep well with a woman on the score of beauty, she'll never quarrel with y~* the trifling article of good sense? but any thing Charles. By your question, I see, you acquit me of the impertinence of being in love. Miss R. But why impertinence? Why the impertinence of being in love? You have one language for me, Charles, and another for the woman of your affection. Charles. You are mistaken; the woman of my affection shall never hear any other language from he, than what I use to you. Miss R. I am afraid, then, you'll never make yourself understood by her. Charles. It is not fit I should; there is no need of love to make me miserable; 'tis wretchedness enough to be a beggar. Miss R. A beggar do you call yourself! O, Charles, Charles! rich in every merit and accomplishment, whom may you not aspire to? and why think you so unworthily of our sex, as to conclude there is not one to be found with sense to discern your virtue, and generosity to reward it? mean? Doesn't every lady want two hundred pounds? Perhaps, I have lost it at play; perhaps, I mean to win as much to it; perhaps, I want it for two hundred different uses. Charles. Pooh, pooh! all this is nothing; don't I know you never play? Miss R. You mistake; I have a spirit to set, not only this trifle, but my whole fortune upon a stake; therefore, make no wry faces, but do as 1 bid you. You will find Mr. Stockwell a very honourable gen tleman. O'Fla. Rest yourself upon my arm; never spare it; 'tis strong enough: it has stood harder service than you can put it to. Lucy. Mercy upon me! what is the matter? I am frightened out of my wits. Has your Ladyship had an accident? Lady R. O, Lucy, the most untoward one in na Charles. You distress me; I must beg to hear noture! I know not how I shall repair it. more. Miss R. Well, I can be silent. Thus does he always serve me, whenever I am about to disclose myself to him. [Aside. Charles. Why do you not banish me and my misfortunes for ever from your thoughts? Min R. Ay, wherefore do I not, since you never allowed me a place in your's? but go, sir: I have no right to stay you; go where your heart directs you; go to the happy, the distinguished, fair one. Charles. Now, by all that's good, you do me wrong; there is no such fair one for me to go to; nor have I an acquaintance among the sex, yourself excepted, which aus vers to that description. Miss R. Indeed! Charles. In very truth; there, then, let us drop the subject. May you be happy, though I never can! Miss R. O Charles! give me your hand; if I have offended you, I ask your pardon; you have been long acquainted with my temper, and know how to bear with its infirmities. Charles. Thus, my dear Charlotte, let us seal our reconciliation. [Kissing her hand.] Bear with thy infirmities! By heaven, I know not any one failing in thy whole composition except that of too great a partiality for an undeserving man. O'Fla. Never go about to repair it, my lady; even build a new one; 'twas but a crazy piece of business at best. Lucy. Bless me, is the old chariot broke down with you again? Lady R. Broke, child! I don't know what might have been broke, if, by great good fortune, this obliging gentleman had not been at hand to assist me. Lucy. Dear madam, let me run and fetch you a cup of the cordial drops. Lady R. Do, Lucy. Erit LUCY.] Alas, sir! ever since I lost my husband, my poor nerves have been shook to pieces: there hangs his beloved picture; that precious relic, and a plentiful jointure, is all that remains to console me for the best of men. O'Fla. Let me see; i'faith, a comely personage! by his fur cloak, I suppose he was in the Russian service; and, by the gold chain round his neck, I should guess, he had been honoured with the order of St. Catherine. Lady R. No, no, he meddled with no St. Catherines; that's the habit he wore in his mayoralty. Sir Stephen was lord mayor of London; but he is gone, and has left me, a poor, weak, solitary widow, behind him. low as one Dennis O'Flaherty can please you, I think I may venture to say, without any disparagement to the gentleman in the fur gown there Miss R. And you are now taking the very course O' Fla. By all means, then, take a strong, able, to augment that failing. A thought strikes me ;-hearty man, to repair his loss. If such a plain felI have a commission that you must absolutely execute for me; I have immediate oecasion for the sum of two hundred pounds; you know my fortune is shut up till I aux of age: take this paltry box, (it) contains my earrings and some other baubles I have no use for) carry it to our opposite neighbour, Mr. Stockwell, (I don't know where else to apply) eave it as a deposit in his hands, and beg him to Accommodate me with the sum. Charles. Dear Charlotte, what are you about to do? How can you possibly want two hundred pounds? Miss R. How can I possibly do without it, you ao. 3 Don' Lady R. What are you going to say? Re-enter Lucy, with a botile and glass. 3 Y 1 drops? Have you any more left in the bottle? I & Fla. Yes, yes, my dear, there are gentlemen O'Fla. You are obeyed; he's on his march. O'Fla. At the first word; no difficulty in life; Lady R. Well, 'tis no matter; so I am but rid of him, and his distresses. Would you believe it, Major O'Flaherty, it was but this morning he sent a-begging to me for money to fit him out upon some wildgoose expedition to the coast of Africa, I know not where? O' Fla. Well, you sent him what he wanted? O'Fla. You refused him? O'Fla. Good morning to you-Your servant- O'Fla. Out of your house, before the roof falls on I I Lady R. Very well, sir; take your course; there isn't in the whole creation so savage an ani- ACT III. SCENE 1.-A Room in Stockwell's House. with an ill grace or a good one, depends que Stock. Ha, ha, ha! Why, you are become v Bel. Well, well, if you'll fetch me the jewels. I believe, I can undertake to carry them to her: but as for the money, I'll have nothing to do with that Dudley would be your fittest ambassador on tis occasion; and, if I'mistake not, the must agresa to the lady. Stock. Why, indeed, from what I know of matter, it may not improbably be destined to o its way into his pockets. Li Bel. Then, depend upon it, these are not the way trinkets she means to dedicate to Captain Desi As for me, Stockwell, indeed, wants me to marry; but, till I can get this bewhing gin, this incognita, out of my head, I can never think of any othET woman. Enter a Servant, and delivers a letter Hey-day! Where can I have picked up a ce spondent already? 'Tis a most execrable Latest p -Let me see-Martha Fulmer-Who is k Fulmer ?-Pshaw! I won't be at the trul ciphering her d-d pothooks.- Hold, kas, d what have we got here? "Dear Sir,-I have discovered the lati ga ma much smitten with, and can procure jus as this JA with her; if you can be as generous, to a produ as you was to a paltry old captain-How that out?-you need not despair; com tam Enter STOCKWELL and BELCOUR. diately; the lady is now in my house, 4-1 trpenia pos Yours, MARTHA FULMAR" Stock. Gratify me so far, however, Mr. Belcour, O thou dear, lovely, and enchanting paper as to see Miss Rusport; carry her the sum sheI was about to tear into a thousand scraps wants, and return the poor girl her box of diamonds, I entreat thy pardon: I have sighted tay which Dudley left in my hands: you know what to which are delicious; slandered thy characters, say on the occasion better than I do; that part of are divine; and all the atonement I can mak* your commission I leave to your own discretion, implicitly to obey thy mandates. and you may season it with what gallantry you think fit. Bel. You could not have pitched upon a greater bungler at gallantry than myself, if you had rummaged every company in the city, and the whole court of aldermen into the bargain: part of your errand, however, I will do; but whether it shall be Enter STOCKWELL. Stock. Mr. Belcour, here are the j letter encloses bills for the money; and, ú ya fi deliver it to Miss Rusport, you'll have trouble on that score. Bel, Ah! sir, the letter which I have been mad THE WEST INDIAN. g, disqualifies me for delivering the letter, which Stock. Hey day; What has turned you thus on a Bel. A woman; one that can turn, and overturn e and my tottering resolutions every way she will. h, sir, if this is folly in me, you must rail at nare: you must chide the sun, that was vertical at y birth, and would not wink upon my nakedness, it swaddled me in the broadest, hottest glare of his eridian beams. Stock. Mere rhapsody, mere childish rhapsody; e libertine's familiar plea. Nature made us, 'tis ue, but we are the responsible creatures of our vn faults and follies. Bel. Sir! Stock. Slave of every face you meet, some hussy as inveigled you; some handsome profligate (the wn is full of them) and, when once fairly bankupt in constitution as well as fortune, nature no onger serves as your excuse for being vicious, ne. essity, perhaps, will stand your friend, and you'll eform. Bel. You are severe. 739 Who found out his name, fortune, connexion :- Enter BELCOUR. [Exit FULMER. me embrace thee! Why, thou art my polar star, Bel. O, thou dear minister to my happiness, let .my impatient bark into the port of pleasure and my propitious constellation, by which I navigate delight. Mrs. F. Oh, you men are sly creatures! Do you remember now, you cruel, what you said to me this morning? it for ever in oblivion: thou! why, thou art all over Bel. All a jest, a frolic; never think on't; bury nectar and ambrosia, powder of pearl and odour of roses! thou hast the youth of Hebe, the beauty of Venus, and the pen of Sappho! But, in the name of all that's lovely, where's the lady? I expected to find her with you. were designed for her; but where have you loitered? Mrs. F. No doubt you did, and these raptures the lady's gone; you are too late; girls of her sort not to be kept waiting, like negro slaves in your sugar plantations. Stock. It fits me to be so; it well becomes a faner,-I would say, a friend. How strangely I forot myself! [Aside.] How difficult it is to counter-are it indifference, and put a mask upon the heart! Bel. How could you tempt me so? nadvertently dropped the name of father, I fear Had you not ur friendship, short as it has been, would scarce ave held me: but even your mistake I reverence -Give me your hand-'tis over. Stock. Generous young man! because I bore you ne affection of a father, I rashly took up the aunority of one. I ask your pardon; pursue your ourse; I have no right to stop it. What would ou have me do with these things? Bel. This, if I might advise; carry the money to Hiss Rusport immediately; never let generosity Fait for its materials; that part of the business resses. Give me the jewels: I'll find an opporunity of delivering them into her hands; and our visit may pave the way for my reception. [Exit. Stock. Be it so; good morning to you. Farewell, advice! Away goes he upon the wing for leasure. What various passions he awakens in me! He pains, yet pleases me; affrights, offends, et grows upon my heart. His very failings set im off: for ever trespassing, for ever atoning, I almost think he would not be so perfect, were he free rom fault: I must dissemble longer; and yet how mainful the experiment! Even now he's gone upon -ome wild adventure; and who can tell what mis-hief may befal him? O nature! what it is to be father! [Exit. SCENE II.-Fulmer's House. Enter FULMER and MRS. FULMER. Ful. I tell you, Patty, you are a fool, to think of bringing him and Miss Dudley together; 'twill ruin very thing, and blow your whole scheme up to the moon at once. Mrs. F. Why sure, Mr. Fulmer, I may be alowed to rear a chicken of my own hatching, as they say. Who first sprung the thought, but I, pray Who first contrived the plot? Who proposed the etter, but I-I? I may follow her. this is a case of some delicacy: should Captain old gentleman I met here this morning? Mrs. F. The same; him you was so generous to. it shall never be said of me, that I took advantage Bel. There's an end of the matter then at once; of the father's necessities to trepan the daughter. [Going. Mrs. F. So, so; I've made a wrong cast; he's won't lose him thus. [4side.] Ha, ha, ha! one of your conscientious sinners, I find; but I Bel. What is it you laugh at? lived so very little time in this country, as not to Mrs. F. Your absolute inexperience; have you know that, between young people of equal ages, the term of sister often is a cover for that of mistress ? This young lady is, in that sense of the word, sister to young Dudley, and cousequently daughter to my old lodger. Bel. Indeed! are you serious? pretty well assured of that, before I invited you Mrs. F. Can you doubt it? I must have been hither. Bel. That's true; she cannot be a woman of honour, and Dudley is an unconsciable young rogue to think of keeping one fine girl in pay, by raising her up: she is a dear, bewitching, mischievous little contributions on another; he shall, therefore, give devil, and he shall positively give her up. I Mrs. F. Ay, now the freak has taken you again; Bel. What's that? ing him; all things,, then, will be made easy |