s, he has reported strange things, but they are all lies.

2. _Lady_.--Well; but pray, Madam, what was the reason, if we may be so
free, that she turned him off after she had entertained him so long?

1. _Lady_.--Oh, Madam! reason enough; I wonder he should pretend, when
he knew his own circumstances too, to court a lady of her fortune.

2. _Lady_.--Why, are not his circumstances good, then?

1. _Lady_.--No, Madam. Good! alas, he has no bottom.

2. _Lady_.--No bottom! Why, you surprise me; we always looked upon him
to be a man of substance, and that he was very well in the world.

1. _Lady_.--It is all a cheat, Madam; there's nothing in it; when it
came to be made out, nothing at all in it.

2. _Lady_.--That cannot be, Madam; Mr ---- has lived always in good
reputation and good credit in his business.

1. _Lady_.--It is all sunk again then, if it was so; I don't know.

2. _Lady_.--Why did she entertain him so long, then?

1. _Lady_.--Alas! Madam, how could she know, poor lady, till her friends
inquired into things? But when they came to look a little narrowly into
it, they soon found reason to give her a caution, that he was not the
man she took him for.

2. _Lady_.--Well, it is very strange; I am sure he passed for another
man among us.

1. _Lady_.--It must be formerly, then, for they tell me his credit has
been sunk these three or four years; he had need enough indeed to try
for a greater fortune, he wants it enough.

2. _Lady_.--It is a sad thing when men look out for fortunes to heal
their trade-breaches with, and make the poor wife patch up their old
bankrupt credit.

1. _Lady_.--Especially, Madam, when they know themselves to be gone so
far, that even with the addition they can stand but a little while, and
must inevitably bring the lady to destruction with them.

2. _Lady_.--Well, I could never have thought Mr ---- was in such
circumstances.

3. _Lady_.--Nor I; we always took him for a ten thousand pound man.

1. _Lady_.--They say he was deep in the bubbles, Madam.

2. _Lady_.--Nay, if he was gotten into the South Sea, that might hurt
him indeed, as it has done many a gentleman of better estates than he.

1. _Lady_.--I don't know whether it was the South Sea, or some other
bubbles, but he was very near making a bubble of her, and L3000 into the
bargain.

2. _Lady_.--I am glad she has escaped him, if it be so; it is a sign her
friends took a great deal of care of her.

1. _Lady_.--He won't