Abel Grouse. (without) What ho! is the lawyer within?
Sir Row. Who interrupts us?
O’Ded. ’Tis the strange man that lives on the common—his name is Abel Grouse—he’s coming up.
Sir R. I’ll wait till you dismiss him, for I cannot encounter any one at present. Misfortunes crowd upon me; and one act of guilt has drawn the vengeance of Heaven on my head, and will pursue me to the grave. [Exit to an inner room.
O’Ded. Och! if a small gale of adversity blows up such a storm as this, we shall have a pretty hurricane by and by, when you larn a little more of your hopeful nephew, and see his new matrimonial scheme fall to the ground, like buttermilk through a sieve.
Enter Abel Grouse.
Abel Grouse. Now, sir, you are jackall, as I take it, to lord Austencourt.
O’Ded. I am his man of business, sure enough; but didn’t hear before of my promotion to the office you mention.
Ab. Gr. You are possessed of all his secret deeds.
O’Ded. That’s a small mistake—I have but one of them, and that’s the deed of settlement on Miss Helen Worret, spinster.