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traordinary; fuch things happen every day: and as the world had only heard generally of a treaty between the families, when this marriage takes place, no body will be the wiser, if we have but difcretion enough to keep our own counfel.

STERL. True, true; and fince you only transfer from one girl to the other, it is no more than transferring fo much stock, you know.

SIR JOHN. The very thing.

STERL. Odfo! I had quite forgot-We are reckoning without our hoft here. There is another difficulty

SIR JOHN. You alarm me.

What can that be?

STERL. I cannot stir a step in this business without confulting my fifter Heidelberg. The family has very great expectations from her, and we must not give her any offence.

SIR JOHN. But if you come into this measure, furely fhe will be fo kind as to confent

STERL. I do not know that. Betfey is her darling; and I cannot tell how far fhe may resent any flight that feems to be offered to her favourite niece. However, I will do the best I can for you. You shall go and break the matter to her firft. and by the time that I may suppose that your rhetoric has prevailed on her to liften to reafon, I will ftep in to reinforce your arguments.

SIR JOHN. 1 will fly to her immediately: you promise me your affiftance?

STERL. I do.

SIR JOHN. Ten thousand thanks for it! and now fuccefs attend me?

STERL. Harkee, Sir John!-Not a word of the thirty thousand to my fifter, Sir John..

SIR JOHN. Oh, I am dumb, I am dumb, Sir.

STERL. You remember it is thirty thousand.

SIR JOHN. To be fure I do.

STERL. But Sir John! one thing more. My Lord muft know nothing of this ftroke of friendship between us.

SIR JOHN. Not for the world. Let me alone! let me alone!

STERL. And when every thing is agreed, we must give each other a bond to be held fast to the bargain.

SIR JOHN. To be fure. A bond by all means! 'a bond, or whatever you please. [Exit Sir John. STERL. I fhould have thought of more conditions, he is in a humour to give me every thing. Why, what mere children are your fellows of quality; that cry for a plaything one minute, and throw it by the next! as changeable as the weather, and as uncertain as the flocks. Special fellows to drive a bargain! and yet they are to take care of interest of the nation truly! Here does this whirligig man of fashion offer to give up thirty thousand pounds in hard money,with as much indifference as if it was a China orange. By this mortgage, I fhall have a hold on his Terra Firma; and if he wants more money, as he certainly will, let him have children by my daughter or no, I fhall have his whole estate in a net for the benefit of my family. Well; thus it is, that the children of citizens who have acquired fortunes, prove perfons of fashion; and thus it is, that perfons of fashion who have ruined their furtunes, reduce the next generation to cits. CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE,

CHAP. VII.

BELCOUR AND STOCKWELL.

STOCK. MR. Belcour, I am rejoiced to fee you; you

are welcome to England.

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BEL. I thank you heartily, good Mr. Stockwell; you and I have long conversed at a distance; now we are met, and the pleasure this meeting gives me, amply compensates for the perils I have run through in accomplishing it.

Sгock. What perils, Mr. Belcour? I could not have thought you would have met a bad paffage at this time o'year.

BEL. Nor did we: courier like, we came pofting to your fhores; upon the pinions of the swifteft gales that ever blew ; it is upon English ground all my difficulties have arifen; it is the paffage from the river-fide I complain of.

STOCK. Aу, indeed! What obstructions can you have met between this and the river-fide?

BEL. Innumerable! your town's as full of defiles as the island of Corfica; and, I believe, they are as obftinately defended; fo much hurry, buftle, and confufion, on your quays; fo many fugar-cafks, porter-butts, and common council-men, in your ftreets; that unless a man marched with artillery in his front, it is more than the labour of a Hercules can effect, to make any tolerable way through. your town.

STOCK. I am forry you have been fo incommoded.

BEL. Why, faith, it was all my own fault; accustomed to a land of flaves, and out of patience with the wholetribe of custom-houfe extortioners, boatmen, tide-waiters, and water-bailifs, that befet me on all fides, worse than a fvarm of musquetoes, I proceeded a little too roughly to brush them away with my rattan; the fturdy rogues took this in dudgeon, and beginning to rebel, the mob chofe different fides, and a furious fcuffle enfued; in the course of which, my perfon and apparel fuffered fo much, that I was obliged

obliged to ftep into the first tavern to refit, before I could make my approaches in any decent trim.

STOCK. Well, Mr. Belcour, it is a rough fample you have had of my countrymen's spirit; but, I trust, you will not think the worse of them for it.

BEL. Not at all; not at all; I like them the better: was I only a vifitor, I might, perhaps, with them a little more tractable; but as a fellow-fubject, and a sharer in their freedom, I applaud their spirit, though I feel the effects of it in every bone of my fkin.-Well, Mr. Stockwell, for the first time in my life, here am I in England; at the fountain-head of pleasure, in the land of beauty, of arts, and elegancies. My happy stars have given me a good estate, and the conspiring winds have blown me hither to spend it.

Srock. To ufe it, not to waste it, I fhould hope; to treat it, Mr. Belcour, not as a vassal, over whom you have a wanton defpotic power, but as a subject, which you are bound to govern with a temperate and restrained authority.

BEL. True, Sir; moft truly faid; mine's a commiffion, not a right I am the offspring of distress, and every child of forrow is my brother; while I have hands to hold therefore, I will hold them open to mankind; but, Sir, my pasfions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reafon and virtue nothing but my wifhes and my fighs.

STOCK. Come, come, the man who can accuse, corrects himself.

BEL. Ah! that is an office I am weary of; I wish a friend would take it up: I would to heaven you had leisure for the employ! but, did you drive a trade to the four corners of the world, you would not find the task fo toilfome as to keep me free from faults.

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STOCK. Well, I am not discouraged; this candour tells me I fhould not have the fault of felf-conceit to combat ; that at least, is not among the number.

BEL. No; if I knew that man on earth who thought more humbly of me than I do of myself, I would take up his opinion and forego my own.

STOCK. And, was I to choose a pupil, it should be one of your complexion; fo, if you will come along with me, we will agree upon your admiffion, and enter upon a course of lectures directly.

BEL. With all my heart.

WEST INDIAN.

CHAP. VIII.

LORD EUSTACE AND FRAMPTON.

LD. EUST. WELL, my dear Frampton, have you

fecured the letters ?

FRAM. Yes, my Lord, for their rightful owners.

LD. EUST. As to the matter of property, Frampton, we will not difpute much about that. Neceffity, you know, may fometimes render a trespass excufable.

that

FRAM. I am not cafuift fufficient to answer you upon fubject; but this I know, that you have already trefpaffed against the laws of hospitality and honour, in your conduct towards Sir William Evans, and his daughter-And as your friend and counfelior, both, I would advise you to think seriously of repairing the injuries you have committed, and not increase your offence by a farther violation.

LD. EUST. It is actually a pity you were not bred to the bar, Ned; but I have only a moment to stay, and am all im

patience

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