Sav.—With an exception to the case of Ladies and Servants.
Doric. True; there I plead guilty:—but I have never yet found any man whom I could cordially take to my heart, and call Friend, who was not born beneath a British sky, and whose heart and manners were not truly English.
[Exit Doricourt and Saville.
SCENE IV.—An Apartment at Mr. Hardy's.
Villers seated on a sopha, reading.
Enter Flutter.
Flut. Hah, Villers, have you seen Mrs. Racket?——Miss Hardy, I find, is out.
Vill. I have not seen her yet. I have made a voyage to Lapland since I came in. (flinging away the book.) A Lady at her toilette is as difficult to be moved, as a Quaker, (yawning). What events have happened in the world since yesterday? have you heard?
Flut. Oh, yes; I stopt at Tattersall's as I came by, and there I found Lord James Jessamy, Sir William Wilding, and Mr.——. But, now I think of it, you sha'n't know a syllable of the matter; for I have been informed you never believe above one half of what I say.
Vill. My dear fellow, somebody has imposed upon you most egregiously!—Half! Why, I never believe one tenth part of what you say; that is, according to the plain and literal expression: but, as I understand you, your intelligence is amusing.
Flut. That's very hard now, very hard. I never related a falsity in my life, unless I stumbled on it by mistake; and if it were otherwise, your dull matter-of-fact people are infinitely oblig'd to those warm imaginations which soar into fiction to amuse you; for, positively, the common events of this little dirty world are not worth talking about, unless you embellish 'em!——Hah! here comes Mrs. Racket: Adieu to weeds, I see! All life!
Enter Mrs. Racket.