s below. [_Exit._

VAN ROUGH. Well, Mary, I must go. Remember, and be a good girl, and
mind the main chance. [_Exit._

MARIA [_alone_].

How deplorable is my situation! How distressing for a daughter to find
her heart militating with her filial duty! I know my father loves me
tenderly; why then do I reluctantly obey him? [Heaven knows! with what
reluctance I should oppose the will of a parent, or set an example of
filial disobedience;] at a parent's command, I could wed awkwardness and
deformity. [Were the heart of my husband good, I would so magnify his
good qualities with the eye of conjugal affection, that the defects of
his person and manners should be lost in the emanation of his virtues.]
At a father's command, I could embrace poverty. Were the poor man my
husband, I would learn resignation to my lot; I would enliven our frugal
meal with good humour, and chase away misfortune from our cottage with a
smile. At a father's command, I could almost submit to what every female
heart knows to be the most mortifying, to marry a weak man, and blush at
my husband's folly in every company I visited. But to marry a depraved
wretch, whose only virtue is a polished exterior; [who is actuated by
the unmanly ambition of conquering the defenceless; whose heart,
insensible to the emotions of patriotism, dilates at the plaudits of
every unthinking girl;] whose laurels are the sighs and tears of the
miserable victims of his specious behaviour--Can he, who has no regard
for the peace and happiness of other families, ever have a due regard
for the peace and happiness of his own? Would to heaven that my father
were not so hasty in his temper! Surely, if I were to state my reasons
for declining this match, he would not compel me to marry a man,--whom,
though my lips may solemnly promise to honour, I find my heart must ever
despise.

[_Exit._

_End of the First Act._

ACT II.

SCENE I.

_Enter CHARLOTTE and LETITIA._

CHARLOTTE [_at entering_].

Betty, take those things out of the carriage and carry them to my
chamber; see that you don't tumble them. My dear, I protest, I think it
was the homeliest of the whole. I declare I was almost tempted to return
and change it.

LETITIA. Why would you take it?

CHARLOTTE. [Didn't Mrs. Catgut say it was the most fashionable?

LETITIA. But, my dear, it will never f