nters.)_

MISS FLYN
My dear Pendulous!

PENDULOUS
Maria!--nay, shun the embraces of a disgraced man, who comes but to tell
you that you must renounce his society for ever.

MISS FLYN
Nay, Pendulous, avoid me not.

PENDULOUS
_(Aside.)_ That was tender. I may be mistaken. Whilst I stood on
honourable terms, Maria might have met my caresses without a blush.

_(Betty, who has not attended to the entrance of Pendulous, through her
eagerness to read the letter, comes forward.)_

BETTY
Ha! ha! ha! What a funny story, madam; and is this all you make such a
fuss about? I should not care if twenty of my lovers had been----
(_seeing Pendulous_)--Lord, Sir, I ask pardon.

PENDULOUS
Are we not alone, then?

MISS FLYN
'Tis only Betty--my old servant. You remember Betty?

PENDULOUS
What letter is that?

MISS FLYN
O! something from her sweetheart, I suppose.

BETTY
Yes, ma'am, that is all. I shall die of laughing.

PENDULOUS
You have not surely been shewing her----

MISS FLYN
I must be ingenuous. You must know, then, that I was just giving Betty a
hint--as you came in.

PENDULOUS
A hint!

MISS FLYN
Yes, of our unfortunate embarrassment.

PENDULOUS
My letter!

MISS FLYN
I thought it as well that she should know it at first.

PENDULOUS
'Tis mighty well, madam. 'Tis as it should be. I was ordained to be a
wretched laughing-stock to all the world; and it is fit that our drabs
and our servant wenches should have their share of the amusement.

BETTY
Marry come up! Drabs and servant wenches! and this from a person in his
circumstances!

_(Betty flings herself out of the room, muttering.)_

MISS FLYN
I understand not this language. I was prepared to give my Pendulous a
tender meeting. To assure him, that however, in the eyes of the
superficial and the censorious, he may have incurred a partial
degradation, in the esteem of one, at least, he stood as high as ever.
That it was not in the power of a ridiculous _accident,_ involving no
guilt, no shadow of imputation, to separate two hearts, cemented by
holiest vows, as ours have been. This untimely repulse to my affections
may awaken scruples in me, which hitherto, in tenderness to you, I have
suppressed.

PENDULOUS
I very well understand what you call tenderness, madam; but in some
situations, pity--pity--is the greatest insult.

MISS FLYN
I can endure no longer. When you are in a calmer mood, you will be sorry
that you have wrung my heart so. _[Ex