Chapter 10

_Another Apartment in SIR SIMON ROCHDALE'S House._

_Enter PEREGRINE._

_Pereg._ Sir Simon does not hurry himself; but 'tis a custom with the great, to make the little, and the unknown, dance attendance. When I left Cornwall, as a boy, this house, I remember, was tenanted by strangers, and the Rochdales inhabited another on the estate, seven miles off.--I have lived to see some changes in the family, and may live, perhaps, to see more.

_Enter FRANK ROCHDALE._

_Frank._ You expected, I believe, Sir Simon Rochdale, sir;--but he will be occupied with particular business, for some time. Can I receive your commands, sir?

_Pereg._ Are you Sir Simon Rochdale's son, sir?

_Frank._ I am.

_Pereg._ It was my wish, sir, to have seen your father. I come unintroduced, and scurvily enough accoutred; but, as I have urgent matters to communicate, and have suffered shipwreck, upon your coast, this morning, business will excuse my obtrusion, and the sea must apologize for my wardrobe.

_Frank._ Shipwreck! That calamity is a sufficient introduction to every roof, I trust, in a civilized country. What can we do immediately to serve you?

_Pereg._ Nothing, sir--I am here to perform service, not to require it. I come from a wretched hut on the heath, within the ken of this affluent mansion, where I have witnessed calamity in the extreme.

_Frank._ I do not understand you.

_Pereg._ Mary!--

_Frank._ Ha.!--Now you _have_ made me understand you. I perceive, now, on what object you have presented yourself here, to harangue. 'Tis a subject on which my own remorse would have taught me to bend to a just man's castigation; but the reproof retorts on the reprover, when he is known to be a hypocrite. My friend, sir, has taught me to know you.

_Pereg._ He, whom I encountered at the house on the heath?

_Frank._ The same.

_Pereg._ And what may he have taught you?

_Frank._ To discover, that your aim is to torture me, for relinquishing a beloved object, whom you are, at this moment, attaching to yourself;--to know, that a diabolical disposition, for which I cannot account, prompts you to come here, without the probability of benefiting any party, to injure me, and throw a whole family into confusion, on the eve of a marriage. But, in tearing myself from the poor, wronged, Mary, I almost tear my very heart by its fibres from the seat;----but 'tis a sacrifice to a father's repose; and--

_Pereg._ Hold, sir! When you betrayed the poor, wronged, Mary, how came you to forget, that every father's repose may be broken for ever by his child's conduct?

_Frank._ By my honour! by my soul! it was my intention to have placed her far, far above the reach of want; but you, my hollow monitor, are frustrating that intention. You, who come here to preach virtue, are tempting her to be a confirmed votary of vice, whom I in penitence would rescue, as the victim of unguarded sensibility.

_Pereg._ Are you, then, jealous of me?

_Frank._ Jealous!

_Pereg._ Aye: if so, I can give you ease. Return with me, to the injured innocent on the heath: marry her, and I will give her away.

_Frank._ Marry her! I am bound in honour to another.

_Pereg._ Modern honour is a coercive argument; but when you have seduced virtue, whose injuries you will not solidly repair, you must be slightly bound in old-fashion'd honesty.

_Frank._ I------I know not what to say to you. Your manner almost awes me; and there is a mystery in----

_Pereg._ I am mysterious, sir. I may have other business, perhaps, with your father; and, I will tell you, the very fate of your family may hang on my conference with him. Come, come, Mr. Rochdale, bring me to Sir Simon.

_Frank._ My father cannot be seen yet. Will you, for a short time, remain in my apartment?

_Pereg._ Willingly;--and depend on this, sir--I have seen enough of the world's weakness, to forgive the casual faults of youthful indiscretion;--but I have a detestation for systematic vice; and though, as a general censor, my lash may be feeble, circumstances have put a scourge in my hand, which may fall heavily on this family, should any of its branches force me to wield it.--I attend you. [_Exeunt._

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ACT THE FIFTH.