SCENE III.--_The hall_. SIR CHARLES MARLOW _and_ HARDCASTLE _witness,

from concealment, the formal proposal of_ MARLOW _to make the supposed "poor relation" his wife. They break in_.

SIR CHARLES: Charles, Charles, how thou hast deceived me! Is this your indifference?

HARDCASTLE: Your cold contempt? Your formal interview? What have you to say?

MARLOW: That I'm all amazement. What does it mean?

HARDCASTLE: It means that you say and unsay things at pleasure; that you can address a lady in private and deny it in public; that you have one story for us and another for my daughter.

MARLOW: Daughter? This lady your daughter? Oh, the devil! Oh--!

KATE: In which of your characters may we address you? The faltering gentleman who looks on the ground and hates hypocrisy, or the bold, forward Agreeable Rattle of the ladies' club?

MARLOW: Zounds, this is worse than death! I must be gone.

HARDCASTLE: But you shall not! I see it was all a mistake. She'll forgive you; we'll all forgive you. Courage, man! And if she makes as good a wife as she has a daughter, I don't believe you'll ever repent your bargain. So now to supper. To-morrow we shall gather all the poor of this parish about us; the mistakes of the night shall be crowned with a merry morning.

FOOTNOTES:

[D] The Life of Goldsmith, by John Forster, may be found in