ns; unanswerable ones.

_Char._ Be quick and name them.

_Lew._ No, madam; I am bound in honour to make conditions first;
I am bound by inclination too. This sweet profusion of kind words
pains while it pleases. I dread the losing you.

_Char._ Astonishment! What mean you?

_Lew._ First promise, that to-morrow, or the next day, you will be
mine for ever.

_Char._ I do--though misery should succeed.

_Lew._ Thus then I seize you! and with you every joy on this side
heaven!
[_Embracing her._

_Char._ And thus I seal my promise. (_Returning his embrace._) Now,
Sir, your secret?

_Lew._ Your fortune's lost.

_Char._ My fortune lost!--I'll study to be humble then. But was my
promise claimed for this? How nobly generous! Where learnt you this
sad news?

_Lew._ From Bates, Stukely's prime agent. I have obliged him, and
he's grateful. He told it me in friendship, to warn me from my
Charlotte.

_Char._ 'Twas honest in him; and I'll esteem him for't.

_Lew._ He knows much more than he has told.

_Char._ For Me it is enough. And for your generous love, I thank you
from my soul. If you'd oblige me more, give me a little time.

_Lew._ Why time? It robs us of our happiness.

_Char._ I have a task to learn first. The little pride this fortune
gave me, must be subdued. Once we were equal; and might have met
obliging and obliged. But now 'tis otherwise; and for a life of
obligations, I have not learnt to bear it.

_Lew._ Mine is that life. You are too noble.

_Char._ Leave me to think on't.

_Lew._ To-morrow then you'll fix my happiness?

_Char._ All that I can, I will.

_Lew._ It must be so; we live but for each other. Keep what you know
a secret; and when we meet to-morrow, more may be known. Farewell.
[_Exit._

_Char._ My poor, poor sister! how would this wound her! But I'll
conceal it, and speak comfort to her. _Exit_.

SCENE V. _changes to a room in the gaming-house._

_Enter BEVERLEY, and STUKELY._

_Bev._ Whither would you lead me?
[_Angrily._

_Stu._ Where we may vent our curses.

_Bev._ Ay, on yourself, and those damned counsels that have
destroyed me. A thousand fiends were in that bosom, and all let
loose to tempt me--I had resisted else.

_Stu._ Go on, Sir. I have deserved this from you.

_Bev._ And curses everlasting. Time is too scanty for them.

_Stu._ What have I done?

_Bev._ What the arch-devil of old did--soothed with false hopes, for
certain ruin.

_Stu._ My