close my true name.

_Melesinda._ Oh! H, H, H. I cherish here a fire of restless curiosity
which consumes me. 'Tis appetite, passion, call it whim, caprice, in
me. Suppose I have sworn, I must and will know it this very night.

_Mr. H_. Ungenerous Melesinda! I implore you to give me this one
proof of your confidence. The holy vow once past, your H. shall not
have a secret to withhold.

_Melesinda_. My H. has overcome: his Melesinda shall pine away and
die, before she dare express a saucy inclination; but what shall I
call you till we are married?

_Mr. H_. Call me? call me anything, call me Love, Love! ay Love: Love
will do very well.

_Melesinda_. How many syllables is it, Love?

_Mr. H_. How many? ud, that is coming to the question with a
vengeance! One, two, three, four,--what does it signify how many
syllables?

_Melesinda_. How many syllables, Love?

_Mr. H_. My Melesinda's mind, I had hoped, was superior to this
childish curiosity.

_Melesinda_. How many letters are there in it?

[_Exit_ MR. H. _followed by_ MELESINDA _repeating the
question_.

SCENE.--_A Room in the Inn. Two Waiters disputing_.

_1st Waiter_. Sir Harbottle Hammond, you may depend upon it.

_2d Waiter_. Sir Harry Hardcastle, I tell you.

_1st Waiter_. The Hammonds of Huntingdonshire.

_2d Waiter_. The Hardcastles of Hertfordshire.

_1st Waiter_. The Hammonds.

_2d Waiter_. Don't tell me: does not Hardcastle begin, with an H?

_1st Waiter_. So does Hammond for that matter.

_2d Waiter_. Faith, so it does if you go to spell it, I did not think
of that. I begin to be of your opinion: he is certainly a Hammond.

_1st Waiter_. Here comes Susan Chambermaid: maybe she can tell.

_Enter_ SUSAN.

_Both_. Well, Susan, have you heard anything who the strange
gentleman is?

_Susan_. Haven't you heard? it's all come out! Mrs. Guesswell, the
parson's widow, has been here about it. I overheard her talking in
confidence to Mrs. Setter and Mrs. Pointer, and she says they were
holding a sort of a _cummitty_ about it.

_Both_. What? What?

_Susan_. There can't be a doubt of it, she says, what from his
_figger_ and the appearance he cuts, and his _sumpshous_ way of
living, and above all from the remarkable circumstance that his
surname should begin with an H., that he must be--

_Both_. Well, well--

_Susan_. Neither more nor less than the Prince.

_Both_. Prince!

_Susan_. The Prince of Hessey-Cassel i