_Mr Thompson._
VAPID _Mr Lewis._
SERVANT _Mr Evatt._

LOUISA COURTNEY _Miss Brunton._
LADY WAITFOR'T _Mrs Webb._
LETTY _Miss Brangin._
MARIANNE _Mrs Wells._

_SCENE,--Bath._

THE DRAMATIST.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

_The Grove.--LADY WAITFOR'T'S House._

_Enter MARIANNE, and LETTY, from the House._

_Mari._ But I tell you I will come out--I didn't come to Bath to be
confined, nor I won't--I hate all their company, but sweet Miss
Courtney's.

_Letty._ I declare, Miss Marianne, you grow worse and worse every day,
your country manners will be the ruin of you.

_Mari._ Don't you talk about that, Letty--It was a shame to bring me up
in the country--if I had been properly taken care of, I might have done
great things--I might have married the poet I danced with at the
ball--But it's all over now.--I shall never get a husband, and, what's
worse, my aunt did it on purpose.--She ruined me, Letty, that nobody
else might.

_Letty._ How you talk!--I hope Miss Courtney hasn't taught you all this?

_Mari._ No,--she's a dear creature,--she has taught me many things; but
nothing improper, I'm sure.

_Letty._ Pray, has she taught you why she never plays any tune but the
one we heard just now?

_Mari._ Yes--and if you'll keep it a secret, I'll tell you, Letty; Mr
Harry Neville taught it her last summer,--and now she is always playing
it, because it puts her in mind of the dear man;--when it is ended,
don't you observe how she sighs from the bottom of her dear little
heart?

_Letty._ Why, I thought they had quarrelled?

_Mari._ So they have--she won't see him, and I believe my aunt, Lady
Waitfor't, has been the occasion of it;--poor Mr Neville!--I wish I
could assist him, for indeed, Letty, I always pity any body that is
crossed in love--it may be one's own case one day or other, you know.

_Letty._ True--and for the same reason, I suppose, you rejoice when it
is successful.--I'm sure now the intended marriage of Lady Waitfor't and
Lord Scratch gives you great pleasure.

_Mari._ What! the country gentleman who has lately come to his title?
No, if you'll believe me, I don't like him at all,--he's a sour old
fellow--is always abusing our sex, and thinks there is only one good
woman under heaven:--now, I'm sure that's a mistake, for I know I'm a
good woman, and I think, Le