st be free on this occasion,
and tell you at once, that I can no longer dissemble the honest passion
that fills my heart for another woman.

_Sir Per_. How! another woman! and, you villain, how dare you love another
woman without my leave? But what other woman--wha is she? Speak, sir,
speak.

_Eger_. Constantia.

_Sir Per_. Constantia! oh, you profligate! what! a creature taken in for
charity!

_Eger_. Her poverty is not her crime, sir, but her misfortune: her birth
is equal to the noblest; and virtue, tho' covered with a village garb, is
virtue still; and of more worth to me than all the splendor of ermined
pride or redundant wealth. Therefore, sir--

_Sir Per_. Haud your jabbering, you villain, haud your jabbering; none
of your romance or refinement till me. I have but one question to ask
you--but one question--and then I have done with you for ever, for ever;
therefore think before you answer:--Will you marry the lady, or will you
break my heart?

_Eger_. Sir, my presence shall not offend you any longer: but when reason
and reflection take their turn, I am sure you will not be pleased with
yourself for this unpaternal passion. [_Going._

_Sir Per_. Tarry, I command you; and, I command you likewise not to stir
till you have given me an answer, a definitive answer: Will you marry the
lady, or will you not?

_Eger_. Since you command me, sir, know then, that I can not, will not
marry her. [_Exit._

_Sir Per_. Oh! the villain has shot me thro' the head! he has cut my
vitals! I shall run distracted;--the fellow destroys aw my measures--aw my
schemes:--there never was sic a bargain as I have made with this foolish
lord,--possession of his whole estate, with three boroughs upon it--six
members--Why, what an acquisition! what consequence! what dignity! what
weight till the house of Macsycophant! O! damn the fellow! three boroughs,
only for sending down six broomsticks.--O! miserable! miserable! ruined!
undone! For these five and twanty years, ever since this fellow came
intill the world, have I been secretly preparing him for ministerial
dignity,--and with the fellow's eloquence, abilities, popularity, these
boroughs, and proper connections, he might certainly, in a little time,
have done the deed; and sure never were times so favorable, every thing
conspires, for aw the auld political post-horses are broken-winded and
foundered, and cannot get on; and as till the rising generation, the
vanity of surpassing