e of
temper.

_De la Cot._ Tell me the truth; does he refuse his daughter?

_Phil._ A man in this world ought to be prepared for any event.

_De la Cot._ I am impatient to hear the truth.

_Phil._ [_Aside._] Ah! if I tell him, he will drop down dead.

_De la Cot._ [_Aside._] This suspense is intolerable.

_Phil._ [_Aside_] Yet he must know.

_De la Cot._ By your leave, sir. [_Going._]

_Phil._ Stay a moment.--[_Aside._] If he goes, there is danger he will
destroy himself from despair.

_De la Cot._ Why not tell me at once what he said to you?

_Phil._ Control yourself. Do not give way to despair, because an
avaricious, presumptuous, ignorant father refuses to marry his daughter
respectably. There is a way to manage it in spite of him.

_De la Cot._ No, sir; when the father refuses, it is not proper for me
to persist.

_Phil._ Well, what do you mean to do?

_De la Cot._ To go far away, and to sacrifice my love to honour, duty,
and universal quiet.

_Phil._ And have you the heart to abandon a girl who loves you?--to
leave her a prey to despair?--soon to receive the sad intelligence of
her illness, perhaps of her death!

_De la Cot._ Ah, Monsieur Philibert, your words will kill me! if you
knew their force, you would be cautious how you used them.

_Phil._ My words will conduct you to joy, to peace, to happiness.

_De la Cot._ Ah, no! rather to sorrow and destruction.

_Phil._ It is strange that a man of spirit like you should be so easily
discouraged.

_De la Cot._ If you knew my case, you would not talk so.

_Phil._ I know it perfectly, but do not consider it desperate. The
girl loves you--you love her passionately. This will not be the first
marriage between young persons that has taken place without the consent
of parents.

_De la Cot._ Do you approve of my marrying the daughter without the
consent of the father?

_Phil._ Yes--in your case--considering the circumstances, I do approve
of it. If the father is rich, you are of a noble family. You do him
honour by the connection; he provides for your interest by a good dowry.

_De la Cot._ But, sir, how can I hope for any dowry when I marry his
daughter in this manner? The father, offended, will refuse her the least
support.

_Phil._ When it is done, it is done. He has but this only child; his
anger may last a few days, and then he must do what so many others have
done: he will receive you as his son-in-law, and perhaps make you master
of his