ry. You must know that--

Enter SERVANT.

SERVANT.

Sir, Mr. Transfer, the broker is below. [Exit.

VAN ROUGH

Well, Mary, I must go. Remember, and be a good girl, and mind the main
chance. [Exit.

MARIA, alone.

How deplorable is my situation! How distressing for a daughter to find
her heart militating with her filial duty! I know my father loves me
tenderly; why then do I reluctantly obey him? Heaven knows! with what
reluctance I should oppose the will of a parent, or set an example of
filial disobedience; at a parent's command, I could wed awkwardness and
deformity. Were the heart of my husband good, I would so magnify his
good qualities with the eye of conjugal affection, that the defects of
his person and manners should be lost in the emanation of his virtues.
At a father's command, I could embrace poverty. Were the poor man my
husband, I would learn resignation to my lot; I would enliven our
frugal meal with good humour, and chase away misfortune from our
cottage with a smile. At a father's command, I could almost submit to
what every female heart knows to be the most mortifying, to marry a
weak man, and blush at my husband's folly in every company I visited.
But to marry a depraved wretch, whose only virtue is a polished
exterior; who is actuated by the unmanly ambition of conquering the
defenceless; whose heart, insensible to the emotions of patriotism,
dilates at the plaudits of every unthinking girl; whose laurels are the
sighs and tears of the miserable victims of his specious
behaviour,--can he, who has no regard for the peace and happiness of
other families, ever have a due regard for the peace and happiness of
his own? Would to heaven that my father were not so hasty in his
temper? Surely, if I were to state my reasons for declining this
match, he would not compel me to marry a man, whom, though my lips may
solemnly promise to honour, I find my heart must ever despise.
[Exit.

END OF THE FIRST ACT.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Enter CHARLOTTE and LETITIA.

CHARLOTTE [at entering].

BETTY, take those things out of the carriage and carry them to my
chamber; see that you don't tumble them. My dear, I protest, I think
it was the homeliest of the whole. I declare I was almost tempted to
return and change it.

LETITIA

Why would you take it?

CHARLOTTE

Didn't Mrs. Catgut say it was the most fashionable?

LETITIA

But, my dear, it will never fi