ake; but whatever
you may be, you are not to appear so; therefore take my shirt and give
me yours; for depend upon't, stay here you shall not, and so go about
your business.

[Footnote A: A play written by Mountford.]

"To conclude, we fairly chang'd linnen, nor could his mother's have
wrap'd him up more fortunately; for in about ten days he marry'd the
Lady."

* * * * *

The gallant Colonel not only married the ex-Countess but became so
flirtatious with at least one other woman that he suggested to Cibber
the most _risque_ scene in the "Careless Husband." This, then, was the
model gentleman to whom Skipwith made over a share in the Drury Lane
patent, and through whose efforts the rival companies were united in
1708. Swiney, according to the orders of the Lord Chamberlain, was to
conduct the Haymarket for operatic performances, and the players were
all to act at the older house.

For a time life at the theatre went as merrily as a marriage bell. The
public, of both high and low degree, crowded Drury Lane, and every one
was happy excepting sour-faced Rich, who saw with disgust that the
plausible, insinuating Brett was fast overshadowing him in the
management. How wily Christopher schemed and schemed, and how the gay
Colonel was finally compelled to relinquish his portion of the patent
altogether, are details that need not be set forth here. It will
suffice to say, that as a result of all this intriguing, affairs at
Drury Lane assumed an almost chaotic character. Nor was it long before
Owen Swiney entered into treaty with Wilks, Dogget, Mrs. Oldfield and
Cibber, who were to come over to the Haymarket as the heads of a new
company.

In this episode the sunny spirit of Nance was brought prettily into
the foreground. "When Mrs. Oldfield was nominated as a joint sharer in
our new agreement to be made with Swiney [again is the quotation from
Cibber], Dogget, who had no objection to her merit, insisted that our
affairs could never be upon a secure foundation if there was more than
one sex admitted to the management of them." Beastly, unchivalrous,
narrow-minded Dogget. Were you alive to-day, how the New Woman would
champ with rage. "He therefore hop'd that if we offer'd Mrs. Oldfield
a _Carte Blanche_ instead of a share, she would not think herself
slighted." And Oldfield, with the affability which sat so well upon
her, did not think herself in the least slighted. She "receiv'd it
rather