Letitia. (gives her cloak to her Maid) Order Du Quesne, never to come again; he shall pofitively drefs any hair no more. (Exit Maid.) And this odious filk, how unbecoming it is! I was bewitched to chuse it, (Throwing herfelf on a fopha, and looking in a pocket - glass.) 'Did you ever see such a fright as I am to-day?

Mrs. Racket. Yes, I have feen you look much worse.

Letit. How can you be fo provoking? If I de not look this morning worse than ever I look'd in my life, I am naturally a fright. You fhall have it which way you will.

Mrs. R. Just as you please; but pray what is the meaning of all this?

Letit. (rifing) Men are all dissemblers, flatterers! deceivers! Have I not heard a thousand times of my air, my eyes, my fhape-all made for victory! and to-day, when I bent my whole heart on one poor conquest, I have proved that all those imputed charms amount to nothing; for Doricourt faw them unmov'd! A husband of fifteen months could not haye examin❜d me with more cutting indifference.

Mrs. R. Then you return it like a wife of fifteen months, and be as indifferent as he.

Letit. Aye, there's the fting! The blooming boy, who left his image in my young heart, is, at four ́ and twenty, improv'd in every grace that fix'd him there. It is the fame face, that my memory and my dreams constantly painted to me; but its graces are finished, and every beauty heightened. How mortifying, to feel myself at the fame moment his flave, and an object of perfect indifference to him,

Mrs. R. How are you certain that was the cafe? Did you expect him to kneel down before the lawyer,

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his clerks, and your father, to make oath of your beauty?

Letit. No; but he should have look'd as if a fudden ray had pierced him; he fhould have been breathlefs! fpeechlefs! for, oh! Caroline, all this

was I.

Mrs. R. I am forry you was fuch a fool. Can you expect a man, who has courted, and been courted, by half the fine women in Europe, to feel like a girl from a boarding - fchool? He is the prettiest fellow you have seen, and in course bewilders your imagination; but he has feen a million of pretty women, child, before he faw you; and his firft feelings have been over long ago.

Letit. Your raillery diftreffes me; but I will touch his heart, or never be his wife.

Mrs. R. Abfurd and romantic! If you have no reason to believe his heart pre-engaged, be fatisfied; if he is a man of honour, you'll have nothing to complain of.

Ι

Letit. Nothing to complain of! Heav'ns! fhall I marry the man I adore, with fuch an expectation as that?

Mrs. R. And when you have fretted yourfelf pale, my dear, you'll have mended your expectation greatly.

Letit. (paufing.) Yet I have one hope. If there is any power whose peculiar care is faithful love, that power I invoke to aid me.

Enter Mr. Hardy.

Hardy. Well, now; wasn't I right? Aye, Letty! Aye, Coulin Racket! wasn't I right? I knew 'twould be fo. He was all agog to see her before he went

abroad;

abroad; and if he had, he'd have thought no more of her face, may be, than his own.

Mrs. R. May be, not half so much.

Hardy. Aye, may be so: but I fee into things; exactly as I forefaw, to-day he fell desperately in love with the wench, he! he! he!

Letit. Indeed, Sir! how did you perceive it?

Hardy. That's a pretty question! How do I perceive every thing? How did I foresee the fall of corn, and the rife of taxes? How did I know, that if we quarrelled with America, Norway deals would be dearer? How did I foretell that a war would fink the funds? How did I forewarn Parfon Homily, that if he didn't some way or other contrive to get more votes than Rubrick, he'd loose the lectureship? How did I

But what the devil makes you fo dull, Letitia? I thought to have found you popping about as brisk as the jacks of your harpsichord.

Letit. Surely, Sir, 'tis a very serious occafion.

Hardy. Pho, pho, girls fhould never be grave before marriage. How did you feel, Coufin, beforehand? Aye!

Mrs. R. Feel! why, exceedingly full of cares.
Hardy. Did you?

Mrs. R. I could, not fleep for thinking of my coach, my liveries, and my chairmen; the taste of clothes I should be presented in, distracted me for a week; and whether I should be married in white or lilac, gave me the most cruel anxiety.

care?

Letit. And is it poffible that you felt no other

Hardy. And pray, of what fort may your cares be, Mrs. Letitia? I begin to foresee now that you have taken a diflike to Doricourt.

Letis. Indeed, Sir, I have not,

Hardy. Then what's all this melancholy about? A'n't you going to be married? and, what's more, to a fenfible man; and what's more to a young girl, to a handsome inan! and what's all this melancholy for, I lay?

Mrs. R. Why, because he is handsome and fenfible, and because she's over head and ears in love with him; all which, it feeins, your foreknowledge had not told you a word of,

Letit. Fye, Caroline!

Hardy. Well, come, do you tell me what's the matter then? If you don't like him, hang the signing and fealing, he fhall not have ye, and yet I can't say that neither; for you know that estate, that coft his father and me upwards of fourfcore thousand pounds, must go all to him, if you won't have him: if he won't have you, indeed, 'twill be all yours. All that's clear, engrofs'd upon parchment; and the poor dear ran fet his hand to it, whilft he was a-dying. ,,Ah!" faid I,,,I foresee you'll never live to see 'ena come together; but their firft fon fhall be chriftened Jeremiah after you, that I promise you." But come, I fay, what is the matter? Don't you like hin.

Letit. I fear — Sir if I must speak — I fear I was lefs agreeable in Mr. Doricourt's eyes, than he appeared in mine.

Hardy. There you are mistaken; for I afked him, and he told me, he liked you vaftly. Don't you think he must have taken a fancy to her?

Mrs. R. Why really I think fo, as I was not by. Letit. My dear Sir, I am convinced he has not; but if there is spirit and invention in woman, he shall. Hardy. Right, Girl; go to your toilette

Letit. It is not my toilette that can ferve me: but a plan has ftruck me, if you will not oppose it, which flatters me with brilliant fuccefs.

Hardy. Oppofe it! not I indeed! What is it?

Letit. Why, Sir it may feem a little para doxical; but, as he does not like me enough, I want him to like me still lefs, and will at our next interview endeavour to heighten his indifference into dislike,

Hardy. Who the devil could have foreseen that?
Heaven and earth! Letitia, are you

Mrs. R.

ferious?

Letit. As ferious as the most important business of my life demands.

Mrs. R. Why endeavour to make him difli ke you?

Letit. Becaufe 'tis much easier to convert a fen timent into its oppofite, than to transform indifference into tender paffion.

Mrs. R. That may be good philosophy; but I am afraid you'll find it a bad maxim.

Letit. I have the strongest confidence in it. I am inspired with unusual spirits, and on this hazard willingly stake my chance for happiness. I am impatient to begin my measures.

XXI.

(Exit Letitia.)

Mistreß Inchbald.

Ausser der Mrs. Cowley haben sich noch mehrere englis sche Frauenzimmer als dramatische Dichterinnen Ruhm ers worben. Schon zu Ende des vorigen, und zu Anfange des gegenwärtigen Jahrhunderts zeichneten sich Aphra Behn, Susanna Centlivre, und Mrs. Manley von dieser Seite vortheils

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