.

_Lady W._ That will be indeed the way to make yourself respectable. I
have found means to manage you for some years, and it will be my own
fault if I don't do so still.

_Sir W._ Surely I dream! what? have you _managed_ me? Hey? Zounds! I
never suspected that. Has sir Willoughby Worret been lead in
leading-strings all this time? Death and forty devils, madam, have you
presumed to manage _me_?

_Lady W._ Yes, sir; but you had better be silent on the subject, unless
you mean to expose yourself to your daughter and all the world.

_Sir W._ Ay, Madam, with all my heart; my daughter and all the world
shall know it.

_Enter_ Helen.

_Helen._ Here's a pretty piece of work!--what's the matter now, I
wonder?

_Lady W._ How dare you overhear our domestic dissentions. What business
have you to know we were quarrelling, madam?

_Helen._ Lord love you! if I had heard it, I should not have listened,
for its nothing new, you know, when you're _alone_; though you both look
so _loving_ in _public_.

_Sir W._ That's true--that is _lamentably_ true--but all the world
_shall_ know it--I'll proclaim it; I'll print it--I'll advertise
it!--She has usurped my rights and my power; and her fate, as every
usurper's should be, shall be _public_ downfall and disgrace.

_Helen._ What, papa! and won't you let mamma-in-law rule the roast any
longer?

_Sir W._ No,--I am resolved from this moment no longer to give way to
her absurd whims and wishes.

_Helen._ You are!

_Sir W._ Absolutely and immovably.

_Helen._ And you will venture to contradict her?

_Sir W._ On every occasion--right or wrong.

_Helen._ That's right--Pray, madam, don't you wish me to marry lord
Austencourt?

_Lady W._ You know my _will_ on that head, Miss Helen!

_Helen._ Then, papa, of course you wish me to marry _Charles_
Austencourt.

_Sir W._ What! no such thing--no such thing--what! marry a beggar?

_Helen._ But you won't let mamma rule the roast, will you, sir?

_Sir W._ 'Tis a great match! I believe in that _one_ point we shall
still agree--

_Lady W._ You may spare your persuasions, Madam, and leave the room.

_Sir W._ What--my daughter leave the room? Stay here, Helen.

_Helen._ To be sure I shall--I came on purpose to tell you the news! oh,
tis a pretty piece of work!

_Sir W._ What does the girl mean?

_Helen._ Why, I mean that in order to ruin a poor innocent girl, in our
neighbourhood, this amiable lord has prevailed on her to c