is a sight for to see!)

ROB. If were the maid I should fan his honest flame--
(Hey, but he's bashful as a youth can be!)

ROSE. If I were the youth I should speak to her to-day--
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)

ROB. If I were the maid I should meet the lad half way--
(For I really do believe that timid youth will
die!)

ROSE. Poor little man!

ROB. Poor little maid!

ROSE. Poor little man!

ROB. Poor little maid!

BOTH. I thank you, (miss\sir), for your counsel true;
I'll tell that (youth\maid) what (he\she) ought to
do!
(Exit ROSE.)

ROB. Poor child! I sometimes think that if she wasn't
quite so particular I might venture--but no, no--even then I
should be unworthy of her!

(He sit desponding. Enter Old Adam.)

ADAM. My kind master is sad! Dear Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd--
ROB. Hush! As you love me, breathe not that hated name.
Twenty years ago, in horror at the prospect of inheriting that
hideous title, and with it the ban that compels all who succeed
to the baronetcy to commit at least one deadly crime per day, for
life, I fled my home, and concealed myself in this innocent
village under the name of Robin Oakapple. My younger brother,
Despard, believing me to be dead, succeeded to the title and its
attendant curse. For twenty years I have been dead and buried.
Don't dig me up now.
ADAM. Dear master, it shall be as you wish, for have I not
sworn to obey you for ever in all things? Yet, as we are here
alone, and as I belong to that particular description of good old
man to whom the truth is a refreshing novelty, let me call you by
your own right title once more! (Robin assents.) Sir Ruthven
Murgatroyd! Baronet! Of Ruddigore! Whew! It's like eight
hours at the seaside!
ROB. My poor old friend! Would there were more like you!
ADAM. Would there were indeed! But I bring you good
tidings. Your foster-brother, Richard, has returned from
sea--his ship the Tom-Tit rides yonder at anchor, and he himself
is even now in this very village!
ROB. My beloved foster-brother? No, no--it cannot be!
ADAM. It is even so--and see, he comes this way!