"Telle est du Ciel la loi severe
Qu'il faut qu'un enfant ait un pere;
On dit meme quelquefois
Tel enfant en a jusqu'a trois."
["That each child has a father
Is Nature's decree;
But, to judge by a rumour,
Some children have three.">[
CAPTAIN ROLAND (greatly disgusted).—"Conde write such stuff!—I don't believe it."
PISISTRATUS.—"I do, and accept the quotations; you and Roland shall be joint fathers to my child as well as myself.
"'Tel enfant en a jusqu'a trois.'"
MR. CAXTON (solemnly).—"I refuse the proffered paternity; but so far as administering a little wholesome castigation now and then, I have no objection to join in the discharge of a father's duty."
PISISTRATUS.—"Agreed. Have you anything to say against the infant hitherto?"
MR. CAXTON.—"He is in long clothes at present; let us wait till he can walk."
BLANCHE.—"But pray whom do you mean for a hero? And is Miss Jemima your heroine?"
CAPTAIN ROLAND.—"There is some mystery about the—"