Lady Fran. Oh, yes! I am going to an Exhibition, and an Auction, and the Park, and Kensington, and a thousand places!—It is quite ridiculous, I find, for married people to be always together—We shall be laughed at!
Sir Geo. I am astonished!—Mrs. Racket, what does the dear creature mean?
Mrs. Rack. Mean, Sir George!—what she says, I imagine.
Miss Ogle. Why, you know, Sir, as Lady Frances had the misfortune to be bred entirely in the Country, she cannot be supposed to be versed in Fashionable Life.
Sir Geo. No; heaven forbid she should!—If she had, Madam, she would never have been my Wife!
Mrs. Rack. Are you serious?
Sir Geo. Perfectly so.—I should never have had the courage to have married a well-bred Fine Lady.
Miss Ogle. Pray, Sir, what do you take a Fine Lady to be, that you express such fear of her? (sneeringly.)
Sir Geo. A being easily described, Madam, as she is seen every where, but in her own house. She sleeps at home, but she lives all over the town. In her mind, every sentiment gives place to the Lust of Conquest, and the vanity of being particular. The feelings of Wife, and Mother, are lost in the whirl of dissipation. If she continues virtuous, 'tis by chance—and if she preserves her Husband from ruin, 'tis by her dexterity at the Card-Table!—Such a Woman I take to be a perfect Fine Lady!
Mrs. Rack. And you I take to be a slanderous Cynic of two-and-thirty.—Twenty years hence, one might have forgiven such a libel!—Now, Sir, hear my definition of a Fine Lady:—She is a creature for whom Nature has done much, and Education more; she has Taste, Elegance, Spirit, Understanding. In her manner she is free, in her morals nice. Her behaviour is undistinguishingly polite to her Husband, and all mankind;—her sentiments are for their hours of retirement. In a word, a Fine Lady is the life of conversation, the spirit of society, the joy of the public!—Pleasure follows where ever she appears, and the kindest wishes attend her slumbers.—Make haste, then, my dear Lady Frances, commence Fine Lady, and force your Husband to acknowledge the justness of my picture!