g sounds!
My soul is all attention!--Pray proceed.

MARIA. I cannot--O! I must not.

JEFFERSON. Why?

MARIA. Her honour.

JEFFERSON. Say, are you truly serious in this matter?
Or, but amusing me with idle hopes?

MARIA. Pray have you ever found me such a trifler?

JEFFERSON. I cannot say I have, and yet----

MARIA. Yet, what?

JEFFERSON. Her virtue!

MARIA. Why you are virtuous, yet cannot avoid
This passion for the loveliest of women:
Nor may she be insensible to you.
No youth more wins our sex's admiration.
Among the rest, the beauteous, gentle Lucia,
In secret languishes: it is too plain:
Though ev'ry art be practis'd to conceal it.

JEFFERSON. Forbear this now. None prize her virtues more:
Nor am I to her outward charms insensible.
But when the heart is to one object wedded,
No lure can win it thence.------You flatter me?

MARIA. I don't.--You under-prize yourself.--View this.--

JEFFERSON. View what? [Eagerly]

MARIA. It is a locket with her precious hair,
Which she has sent by me. Refuse it not.

JEFFERSON. Refuse it!--O! whilst life exists I'll wear it,
Close to that heart which is for ever hers.
I am all ecstacy, delicious woman! [He kisses it.]

MARIA. [Aside.] A lucky hit, and works as I could wish.

JEFFERSON. Gratefully thank her for the precious token.

MARIA. And now as to her present exigencies?

JEFFERSON. To what may they amount?

MARIA. About a thousand.

JEFFERSON. 'Tis quite impossible.

MARIA. Less will not do.

JEFFERSON. Besides the mischief I have done my master,
I stand myself upon the verge of ruin.

MARIA. Were you to see her, you'd not lose a moment
In this last act, so be yourself the messenger.

JEFFERSON. First, tell her then, that she shall be supply'd,
Let the event be fatal as it may.

MARIA. Most gen'rous youth! she shall know all your goodness. [She
goes off.]

JEFFERSON. How quickly every resolution vanishes!
And how am I now chang'd from what I was!

Like some weak skiff, that for a while had stood
Safe on the tranquil bosom of the flood;
Until at length, the mountain torrents sweep
Its faint resistance headlong to the deep,
Where in large