or will he put her up by way of
Auction, at who bids most? If so, Egad, I'm for him: my Gold, as you
say, shall be subservient to my Pleasure.

_Cha._ To deal ingeniously with you, Sir _George_, I know very little of
Her, or Home; for since my Uncle's Death, and my Return from Travel, I
have never been well with my Father; he thinks my Expences too great,
and I his Allowance too little; he never sees me, but he quarrels; and
to avoid that, I shun his House as much as possible. The Report is, he
intends to marry her himself.

Sir _Geo._ Can she consent to it?

_Cha._ Yes faith, so they say; but I tell you, I am wholly ignorant of
the matter. _Miranda_ and I are like two violent Members of a contrary
Party, I can scarce allow her Beauty, tho' all the World do's; nor she
me Civility, for that Contempt, I fancy she plays the Mother-in-law
already, and sets the old Gentleman on to do mischief.

Sir _Geo._ Then I've your free Consent to get her.

_Cha._ Ay and my helping-hand, if occasion be.

Sir _Geo._ Pugh, yonder's a Fool coming this way, let's avoid him.

_Cha._ What _Marplot_, no no, he's my Instrument; there's a thousand
Conveniences in him, he'll lend me his Money when he has any, run of my
Errands and be proud on't; in short, he'll Pimp for me, Lye for me,
Drink for me, do any thing but Fight for me, and that I trust to my own
Arm for.

Sir _Geo._ Nay then he's to be endur'd; I never knew his Qualifications
before.

_Enter _Marplot_ with a Patch cross his Face._

_Marpl._ Dear _Charles_, your's,--Ha! Sir _George Airy_, the Man in the
World, I have an Ambition to be known to (_aside_.) Give me thy Hand,
dear Boy--

_Cha._ A good Assurance! But heark ye, how came your Beautiful
Countenance clouded in the wrong place?

_Marpl._ I must confess 'tis a little _Mal-a-propos_, but no matter for
that; a Word with you, _Charles_; Prithee, introduce me to Sir
_George_--he is a Man of Wit, and I'd give ten Guinea's to--

_Cha._ When you have 'em, you mean.

_Marpl._ Ay, when I have 'em; pugh, pox, you cut the Thread of my
Discourse--I wou'd give ten Guinea's, I say, to be rank'd in his
Acquaintance: Well, 'tis a vast Addition to a Man's Fortune, according
to the Rout of the World, to be seen in the Company of Leading Men; for
then we are all thought to be Politicians, or Whigs, or Jacks, or
High-Flyers, or Low-Flyers, or Levellers--and so forth; for you must
know, we all herd in Parties now.

_Cha._ Then a