Sav. Surely the occasion may justify the means:—'tis doubly my duty to be Lady Frances's Protector. Courtall, I see, is planning an artful scheme; but Saville shall out-plot him.
[Exit Saville.
SCENE IV.——Sir George Touchwood's.
Enter Sir George and Villers.
Vill. For shame, Sir George! you have left Lady Frances in tears.—How can you afflict her?
Sir Geo. 'Tis I that am afflicted;—my dream of happiness is over.—Lady Frances and I are disunited.
Vill. The Devil! Why, you have been in town but ten days: she can have made no acquaintance for a Commons affair yet.
Sir Geo. Pho! 'tis our minds that are disunited: she no longer places her whole delight in me; she has yielded herself up to the world!
Vill. Yielded herself up to the World! Why did you not bring her to town in a Cage? Then she might have taken a peep at the World!—But, after all, what has the World done? A twelvemonth since you was the gayest fellow in it:—If any body ask'd who dresses best?—Sir George Touchwood.—Who is the most gallant Man? Sir George Touchwood.—Who is the most wedded to Amusement and Dissipation? Sir George Touchwood.—And now Sir George is metamorphosed into a sour Censor; and talks of Fashionable Life with as much bitterness, as the old crabbed Fellow in Rome.
Sir Geo. The moment I became possessed of such a jewel as Lady Frances, every thing wore a different complexion: that Society in which I liv'd with so much éclat, became the object of my terror; and I think of the manners of Polite Life, as I do of the atmosphere of a Pest-house.—My Wife is already infected; she was set upon this morning by Maids, Widows, and Bachelors, who carried her off in triumph, in spite of my displeasure.
Vill. Aye, to be sure; there would have been no triumph in the case, if you had not oppos'd it:—but I have heard the whole story from Mrs. Racket; and I assure you, Lady Frances didn't enjoy the morning at all;—she wish'd for you fifty times.