Sidney, a son thus
circumstanced (from the dignity of human reason and the feelings of a
loving heart) has a right--not only to protest against the blindness of a
parent, but to pursue those measures that virtue and happiness point out.

_Sid_. The violent temper of Sir Pertinax, I own, cannot be defended on
many occasions, but still--your intended alliance with Lord Lumbercourt--

_Eger_. [_With great impatience._] O! contemptible!--a trifling, quaint,
haughty, voluptuous, servile tool,--the mere lackey of party and
corruption; who, for the prostitution of near thirty years and the ruin of
a noble fortune, has had the despicable satisfaction, and the infamous
honour--of being kicked up and kicked down--kicked in and kicked out,--
just as the insolence, compassion, or convenience of leaders
predominated:--and now--being forsaken by all parties, his whole political
consequence amounts to the power of franking a letter, and the right
honourable privilege of not paying a tradesman's bill.

_Sid_. Well, but, dear Charles, you are not to wed my lord,--but his
daughter.

_Eger_. Who is as disagreeable to me for a companion, as her father for a
friend, or an ally.

_Sid_. What--her Scotch accent, I suppose, offends you?

_Eger_. No, upon my honour--not in the least,--I think it entertaining in
her;--but were it otherwise--in decency--and indeed in national affection
(being a Scotchman myself), I can have no objection to her on that
account,--besides, she is my near relation.

_Sid_. So I understand. But pray, Charles, how came Lady Rodolpha, who, I
find, was born in England, to be bred in Scotland?

_Eger_. From the dotage of an old, formal, obstinate, stiff, rich, Scotch
grandmother, who, upon a promise of leaving this grandchild all her
fortune, would have the girl sent to her to Scotland, when she was but a
year old, and there has she been ever since, bred up with this old lady in
all the vanity and unlimited indulgence that fondness and admiration could
bestow on a spoiled child--a fancied beauty and a pretended wit.

_Sid_. O! you are too severe upon her.

_Eger_. I do not think so, Sidney; for she seems a being expressly
fashioned by nature to figure in these days of levity and dissipation:--
her spirits are inexhaustible: her parts strong and lively; with a
sagacity that discerns, and a talent not unhappy in painting out the weak
side of whatever comes before her:--but what raises her merit to the
highest pi