undred pieces?
Yet let not that disturb you in the least:
It may be in your power to pay me soon.

Mrs. ANDREWS. I would not forfeit your regard and friendship,
For fifty times the sum.

Lady BELMOUR. Imagine not,
That I cou'd doubt your honour, were it thousands.
Your strict and constant perseverance in it,
Has won you the esteem and love of all;
And to convince you of my high opinion,
I'll hazard this five hundred with you now.
The day is early yet.

Mrs. ANDREWS. O press me not;
My mind's too-much distress'd with what has happen'd;
But I have brought the honourable debt. [She takes out
several notes from a pocket-book.]
These make the whole, I think.

Lady BELMOUR. Most honour'd friend!
But may I trespass on your gen'rous spirit?
Your stock I see, is not a little weighty.
Cou'd you supply me with five hundred more
For a few hours? I have no doubt to treble them,
At a small party, I expect this instant:
And I'll repay them gratefully this evening
At lady Meldmay's, where we are to meet.
I, and three more this morning hold a bank;
In which, if you wou'd choose to share a chance,
Fortune perhaps might favour you this way.

Mrs. ANDREWS. Not now; but here's the further sum you wish for;
And fail not to repay it as you promise.
'Tis but a part of what I owe to others.

Lady BELMOUR. I wou'd not disappoint you for the world.
My obligations are beyond expression.
Grant heav'n, your present troubles quickly vanish.

Mrs. ANDREWS. And may you meet the fortune which you hope for!
[She goes off.]

Lady BELMOUR. 'Tis wonderful, how she acquires all this.
Her husband's ruin'd, my dissipated lord,
Most lavishly, I hear, supplies her wants;
Whilst even for domestic calls his purse
Is niggardly unclos'd; and what he spares,
Must be in strictest mode accounted for:
Nor does he know a pleasure, absent from her.
To keep this sum then, were but fair reprisals. [Exit.]

SCENE III.

Mr. ANDREWS's house.

Mr. ANDREWS and THOMAS.

ANDREWS. What monsters trust will make us when we yield
Our reason to its rage, and let it rule!
My neighbour! my companion! Oh! the man,
Whom I to serve, would have risk'd every blessing
To seek to wo