LORD B.— And now let us proceed to the business of the day. Few of us have done any business for many days.
COUNSELOR— True. Let us proceed more rapidly than your trains. Phyllis, my ward, has so powerfully affected you that you have let all your railways go to eternal smash, and you have asked me to give her to whichever one of you I may select. It would be idle for me to deny that I, too, have been wonderfully attracted to this young woman. My affection for her is rapidly undermining my constitution, just as it has undermined the constitutions of all your railways. But we shall hear what she has to say herself, for here she comes.
(Enter Phyllis.)
RECITATIVE.
My well lov'd lord and guardian dear, You summoned me, and I am here.
CHORUS OF GENERAL PASSENGER AGENTS.
Oh, rapture! how beautiful, How gentle, how dutiful!
(Gen. Pass. Agents make a dumb appeal to Phyllis.)
SONG.