TOM FASHION.
I find by his dress he thought your daughter might be taken with a beau.
MISS HOYDEN.
Oh, gemini! is this a beau? let me see him again. [Surveys him.] Ha! I find a beau is no such ugly thing, neither.
TOM FASHION.
[Aside.] Egad, she’ll be in love with him presently—I’ll e’en have him sent away to jail.—[To LORD FOPPINGTON.] Sir, though your undertaking shows you a person of no extraordinary modesty, I suppose you ha’n’t confidence enough to expect much favour from me?
LORD FOPPINGTON.
Strike me dumb, Tam, thou art a very impudent fellow.
NURSE.
Look, if the varlet has not the effrontery to call his lordship plain Thomas!
LORD FOPPINGTON.
My Lord Foppington, shall I beg one word with your lordship?
NURSE.
Ho, ho! it’s my lord with him now! See how afflictions will humble folks.
MISS HOYDEN.
Pray, my lord—[To FASHION]—don’t let him whisper too close, lest he bite your ear off.
LORD FOPPINGTON.
I am not altogether so hungry as your ladyship is pleased to imagine.—[Aside to TOM FASHION.] Look you, Tam, I am sensible I have not been so kind to you as I ought, but I hope you’ll forgive what’s past, and accept of the five thousand pounds I offer—thou mayst live in extreme splendour with it, stap my vitals!
TOM FASHION.
It’s a much easier matter to prevent a disease than to cure it. A quarter of that sum would have secured your mistress, twice as much cannot redeem her. [Aside to LORD FOPPINGTON.]