ABSOLUTE
Sir, you are very good.
Sir ANTHONY And it is my wish, while yet I live, to have my boy make some figure in the world. I have resolved, therefore, to fix you at once in a noble independence.
ABSOLUTE Sir, your kindness overpowers me—such generosity makes the gratitude of reason more lively than the sensations even of filial affection.
Sir ANTHONY I am glad you are so sensible of my attention—and you shall be master of a large estate in a few weeks.
ABSOLUTE
Let my future life, sir, speak my gratitude; I cannot express the sense
I have of your munificence.—Yet, sir, I presume you would not wish me
to quit the army?
Sir ANTHONY
Oh, that shall be as your wife chooses.
ABSOLUTE
My wife, sir!
Sir ANTHONY
Ay, ay, settle that between you—settle that between you.
ABSOLUTE
A wife, sir, did you say?
Sir ANTHONY
Ay, a wife—why, did not I mention her before?