Bev. Jun. I assure you, sir, there was no insolence in it upon the prospect of such a vast fortune's being added to our family; but much acknowledgment of the lady's greater desert.
Sir J. Bev. But, dear Jack, are you in earnest in all this? And will you really marry her?
Bev. Jun. Did I ever disobey any command of yours, sir? nay, any inclination that I saw you bent upon?
Sir J. Bev. Why, I can't say you have, son; but methinks in this whole business, you have not been so warm as I could have wished you. You have visited her, it's true, but you have not been particular. Everyone knows you can say and do as handsome things as any man; but you have done nothing but lived in the general—been complaisant only.
Bev. Jun. As I am ever prepared to marry if you bid me, so I am ready to let it alone if you will have me.
[Humphry enters, unobserved.
Sir J. Bev. Look you there now! why, what am I to think of this so absolute and so indifferent a resignation?
Bev. Jun. Think? that I am still your son, sir. Sir, you have been married, and I have not. And you have, sir, found the inconvenience there is when a man weds with too much love in his head. I have been told, sir, that at the time you married, you made a mighty bustle on the occasion. There was challenging and fighting, scaling walls, locking up the lady, and the gallant under an arrest for fear of killing all his rivals. Now, sir, I suppose you having found the ill consequences of these strong passions and prejudices, in preference of one woman to another, in case of a man's becoming a widower——
Sir J. Bev. How is this?