can--if you,
Miss Lucy, will plead for me--and my letter, Sir Gilbert, ought to plead
for me too--all I beg is, that you will place me in a situation to keep
my good resolutions.

_Capt. Eth._ Lucy will plead for her, sir, and so do I, for to her I owe
my present happiness.

_Adm._ Well, well, woman, it shall be your own fault if you do wrong
again.

_Nelly_ (_curtseying._) Then let me beg pardon of all those to whom I
have occasioned uneasiness.

_Adm._ Well, it's all settled now, except the affair of the letter,
which we must attend to, Bargrove.

_Capt. Mer._ Not quite all, sir; here are two who wish for your
sanction.

_Adm._ Hah! Is it so, Agnes? In this instance I may safely join your
hands for your mother, for this morning she expressed a wish that it
might be so. At the same time, Mr and Mrs Bargrove, I must request your
sanction for the choice that my son has made. He has already secured
mine and that of Lady Etheridge.

_Mrs Bar._ (_wiping her eyes._) This is indeed a joyous end to all my
vexations.

_Nelly_ (_with emotion._) May heaven bless your union, my dear Miss
Lucy!

_Old Bar._ God bless you both! Now, with your permission, Sir Gilbert, I
will resign my office of steward. For many years I have filled it
through gratitude, and not from any wish of emolument. I have enough to
portion my daughter, and even to make that foolish boy a gentleman,
according to his notions of gentility.

_Peter._ Have you, my dear father? Then I am glad that I was not
changed. But I say, Etheridge, I'm your brother-in-law. Indeed you've a
strong hand, brother Edward.

_Capt. Eth._ There, Peter, take it in friendship. (_Shake hands._)

_Adm._ And mine.

_Capt. Mer._ Peter, mine.

_Old Bar._ Well, I suppose, Peter, I must do the same, and forget and
forgive.

_Mrs Bar._ And me, Peter. (_Peter jumps up, clasps her round the neck,
and gives her a hearty kiss._) The boy's heart is right after all.

_Adm._ Thus, then, do all our vexations end in happiness, and may we be
allowed to indulge the hope that the same may prove the case with all
the parties (_bowing to the audience_) who have honoured us with their
presence.

[_Curtain falls._

ILL-WILL:

AN ACTING CHARADE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

MR CADAVEROUS, _An old miser, very rich and very ill._

EDWARD, _A young lawyer without a brief._

MR HAUSTUS GUMARABIC, _Apothecary._

SEEDY, _Solicitor._

THOMAS MONTAGU, }