t! When enters she
A drawing-room, what worlds of gracious things
Her curtsey says!--she sinks with such a sway,
Greeting on either hand the company,
Then slowly rises to her state again!
She is the empress of the card-table!
Her hand and arm!--Gods, did you see her deal--
With curved and pliant wrist dispense the pack,
Which, at the touch of her fair fingers fly!
How soft she speaks--how very soft! Her voice
Comes melting from her round and swelling throat,
Reminding you of sweetest, mellowest things--
Plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines--
Whose bloom is poor to paint her cheeks and lips.
By Jove, I'll marry!

_True_. You forget, Sir William,
I do not know the lady.

_Sir Wil_. Great your loss.
By all the gods I'll marry!--but my daughter
Must needs be married first. She rules my house;
Would rule it still, and will not have me wed.
A clever, handsome, darling, forward minx!
When I became a widower, the reins
Her mother dropped she caught,--a hoyden girl;
Nor, since, would e'er give up; howe'er I strove
To coax or catch them from her. One way still
Or t'other she would keep them--laugh, pout, plead;
Now vanquish me with water, now with fire;
Would box my face, and, ere I well could ope
My mouth to chide her, stop it with a kiss!
The monkey! What a plague she's to me! How
I love her! how I love the Widow Green!

_True_. Then marry her!

_Sir Wil_. I tell thee, first of all
Must needs my daughter marry. See I not
A hope of that; she nought affects the sex:
Comes suitor after suitor--all in vain.
Fast as they bow she curtsies, and says, "Nay!"
Or she, a woman, lacks a woman's heart,
Or hath a special taste which none can hit.

_True_. Or taste, perhaps, which is already hit.

_Sir Wil_. Eh!--how?

_True_. Remember you no country friend,
Companion of her walks--her squire to church,
Her beau whenever she went visiting--
Before she came to town?

_Sir Wil_. No!

_True_. None?--art sure?
No playmate when she was a girl?

_Sir Wil_. O! ay!
That Master Wildrake, I did pray thee go
And wait for at the inn; but had forgotten.
Is he come?

_True_. And in the house. Some friends that met him,
As he alighted, laid strong hands upon Him,
And made him stop for dinner. We had else
Been earlier with you.

_Sir Wil_. Ha! I am glad he is come.

_True_. She may be smit with him.

_Sir Wil_. As cat with dog!

_True_. He heard her voice as we did mount the stairs,
And dart