where it ends.
And to think that not an hour ago I still had hopes! Hopes! Ay, not an
hour ago I thought of a new life. You were not forgotten, Jean. Leslie,
you must try to forgive me ... you too!

LESLIE. You are her brother.

BRODIE (_to LAWSON_). And you.

LAWSON. My name-child and my sister's bairn.

BRODIE. You won't forget Jean, will you? nor the child?

LAWSON. That I will not.

MARY. O Willie, nor I.

SCENE VII

_To these, HUNT_

HUNT. The game's up, Deacon. I'll trouble you to come along with me.

BRODIE (_behind the table_). One moment, officer: I have a word to say
before witnesses ere I go. In all this there is but one man guilty; and
that man is I. None else has sinned; none else must suffer. This poor
woman (_pointing to JEAN_) I have used; she never understood. Mr.
Procurator-Fiscal, that is my dying confession. (_He snatches his hanger
from the table, and rushes upon HUNT, who parries, and runs him through.
He reels across the stage and falls._) The new life ... the new life!
(_He dies._)

CURTAIN

BEAU AUSTIN

DEDICATED
WITH
ADMIRATION AND RESPECT

TO

GEORGE MEREDITH

BOURNEMOUTH,
_1st October, 1884_

PERSONS REPRESENTED

GEORGE FREDERICK AUSTIN, called "Beau Austin" _AEtat._ 50

JOHN FENWICK, of Allonby Shaw " 26

ANTHONY MUSGRAVE, Cornet in the Prince's Own " 21

MENTEITH, the Beau's Valet " 55

A ROYAL DUKE. (Dumb show.)

DOROTHY MUSGRAVE, Anthony's Sister " 25

MISS EVELINA FOSTER, her Aunt " 45

BARBARA RIDLEY, her Maid " 20

VISITORS TO THE WELLS

The Time is 1820. The Scene is laid at Tunbridge Wells.
The Action occupies a space of ten hours.

PROLOGUE

"To all and singular," as Dryden says,
We bring a fancy of those Georgian days,
Whose style still breathed a faint and fine perfume
Of old-world courtliness and old-world bloom:
When speech was elegant and talk was fit,
For slang had not been canonised as wit;
When manners reigned, when breeding had the wall,
And Women--yes!--were ladies first of all;
When Grace was conscious of its gracefulness,
And man--though Man!--was not ashamed to dress.
A brave formality, a measured ease,
Were his--and hers--whose effort was to