Pereg. I beg your pardon, sir, for mistaking you for so bad a person.
Shuff. Mr. Rochdale, sir, is my intimate friend. If you mean to recommend yourself in this quarter, [Pointing to Mary.] good breeding will suggest to you, that it mustn't be done by abusing him, before me.
Pereg. I have not acquired that sort of good breeding, sir, which isn't founded on good sense;—and when I call the betrayer of female innocence a bad character, the term, I think, is too true to be abusive.
Shuff. 'Tis a pity, then, you hav'n't been taught a little better, what is due to polished society.
Pereg. I am always willing to improve.
Shuff. I hope, sir, you won't urge me to become your instructor.
Pereg. You are unequal to the task: if you quarrel with me in the cause of a seducer, you are unfit to teach me the duties of a citizen.
Shuff. You may make, sir, a very good citizen; but, curse me, if you'll do for the west end of the town.
Pereg. I make no distinctions in the ends of towns, sir:—the ends of integrity are always uniform: and 'tis only where those ends are most promoted, that the inhabitants of a town, let them live east or west, most preponderate in rational estimation.
Shuff. Pray, sir, are you a methodist preacher, in want of a congregation?