SCENE I.

_An Apartment._

_Enter CLIFFORD and MR. RIGHTLY._

_Cliff._ Your knowledge in the profession, Mr. Rightly, is as unquestionable as your integrity; but there is something so surprising in the recovery of the Charlton estate.--If you knew, too, how the value of the acquisition is enhanced, by the opportune moment in which it presents itself--I am in too much emotion to thank you as I ought.

_Rightly._ Sir, I want neither compliment, nor acknowledgment, for revealing what I should be a party to dishonesty to conceal.

_Cliff._ You have a right to all my thoughts: but I have an appointment to obey, that admits no time for explanation; favour me for a moment with your pencil, [_RIGHTLY takes out a Pencil and Pocket-book._] and a blank page in that memorandum-book.

[_CLIFFORD writes._

_Rightly._ My life on't, his head is turned upon some girl not worth a shilling--There is an amiable defect, but a very observable one, in the nature of some men. A good head and heart operate as effectually as vice or folly could do to make them improvident.

_Cliff._ Mr. Rightly, I confide to your hands a new secret relative to the Charlton estate; do not read it till you return home. [_Gives the Book, aside, and going._] There, Gayville, is one reply to your challenge--and now for another.

_Rightly._ One moment, sir--I engage for no secrecy that my own judgment shall not warrant.

_Cliff._ And the benevolence of your heart approve--Those are my conditions.

[_Exeunt on opposite Sides._