fruition as ever Cupid and Hymen presented to a happy
mortal's view.--For your farther comfort, I have the pleasure to acquaint
you, that Mr. Trueman is equally fond of the match.
LOVEYET. Better and better--my dear George! You are the best of
friends,--my happy genius! My very guardian angel!
FRANKTON. Well said, Heroics--come, spout away.
LOVEYET. Yes, I _am_ happy, very happy, indeed: Moralists disparage this
world too much,--there _is_ such a thing as happiness under the sun,--I
_feel_ it now most irrefragably,--_here_ it vibrates in a most extatic
manner.
FRANKTON. Why, you are positively the arrantest love-sick swain that ever
had recourse to a philter.
LOVEYET. Profane heretic in love! Did not you extol the two Seraphims just
now in the same generous language? But you have never experienced the
blissful transition from doubt and solicitude to certainty and peace, as I
do now.
FRANKTON. How do you know that?
LOVEYET. I only conjecture so--Did you ever feel the same transports I do?
FRANKTON. How, in the name of sense, should I know how you feel?
LOVEYET. Feel!--I feel that kind heaven, my friend, my father, and my
dearest girl, all conspire to bless me!
FRANKTON. There he rides his hobby-horse again.
LOVEYET. Aye, and a generous horse he is--he carries me very pleasantly, I
assure you.
FRANKTON. Yes, and, I dare say, could convey you more agreeably and
speedily to Paradise than the Ass did Mahomet.
LOVEYET. Ha, ha. I think you have improved my idea.
FRANKTON. To improve your reason, and check your strange delirium, I have.
LOVEYET. I will talk more dispassionately;--but my heart _will_ palpitate
at the thought of meeting the lovely source of its joy, and the ultimatum
of all its wishes!
FRANKTON. I suppose you know she lives with Mr. Friendly.
LOVEYET. With Mr. Friendly!
FRANKTON. Yes, she is nearly related to his family, and as the style in
which they live, corresponds with her former prosperity better than the
present ineligible situation of her father does, he has granted them her
valuable company, after their repeated solicitations had prov'd the
sincerity of their regard.
LOVEYET. But how do you account for Mr. Trueman's poverty, since fortune
has lately put it so much in Harriet's power to relieve him from it? I dare
not think it arises from her want of filial regard; I do not know anything
so likely to abate the ardour of my attachment as a knowledge of that; but
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