hed my cup of bliss to the ground?
Heavens! what delightful anticipations I had formed of possessing you
and competence--all gone!

CLEM. All gone, dear Edward?

[Mrs JELLYBAGS, _who has been sitting very still, takes her
handkerchief from her eyes and listens_.]

EDW. Yes, gone!--gone for ever! Do you imagine, my ever dear
Clementina, that I would be so base, so cruel, so regardless of you and
your welfare, to entrap you into marriage with only one hundred and
fifty pounds! No, no!--judge me better. I sacrifice myself--my
happiness--all for you!--banish myself from your dear presence, and
retire to pass the remainder of my existence in misery and regret,
maddened with the feeling that some happier mortal will obtain that dear
hand, and will rejoice in the possession of those charms which I had too
fondly, too credulously, imagined as certain to be mine.

[_Takes out his handkerchief and covers his face_; CLEMENTINA _also puts
her handkerchief to her face and weeps_. Mrs JELLYBAGS _nods her head
ironically_.]

CLEM. Edward!

EDW. My dear, dear Clementina!

CLEM. You won't have me?

EDW. My honour forbids it. If you knew my feelings--how this poor
heart is racked!

CLEM. Don't leave me, Edward. Did you not say that for richer or for
poorer, for better or for worse, you would be mine, till death did us
part?

EDW. Did I!

CLEM. You know you did, Edward.

EDW. It's astonishing how much nonsense we talk when in love. My
dearest Clementina, let us be rational. We are almost without a
sixpence. There is an old adage, that when poverty comes in at the
door, love flies out of the window. Shall I then make you miserable!
No! no! Hear me, Clementina. I will be generous. I now absolve you
from all your vows. You are free. Should the time ever come that
prosperity shine upon me, and I find that I have sufficient for both of
us of that dross which I despise, then will I return, and, should my
Clementina not have entered into any other engagement, throw my fortune
and my person at her feet. Till then, dearest Clementina, farewell!

CLEM. (_sinking into a chair sobbing_.) Cruel Edward! Oh, my heart
will break!

EDW. I can bear it myself no longer. Farewell! farewell! [_Exit_.]

JEL. (_coming forward_.) Well, this is some comfort.--(_To_
CLEMENTINA.) Did I not tell you, Miss, that if you did not change your
mind, others might?

CLEM. Leave me, leave me.

JEL. No, I shan't; I