Mr. Caxton, reciting—
"Telle est du Ciel la loi sèvère
Qu'il faut qu'un enfant ait un père;
On dit même quelque fois
Tel enfant en a jusqu'á trois."
Captain Roland, greatly disgusted.—"Condé write such stuff!—I don't believe it."
Pisistratus.—"I do, and accept the quotation—you and Roland shall be joint fathers to my child as well as myself."
"Tel enfant en a jusqu'á trois."
Mr. Caxton, solemnly.—"I refuse the proffered paternity; but so far as administering a little wholesome castigation, now and then, I have no objection to join in the discharge of a father's duty."
Pisistratus.—"Agreed; have you any thing to say against the infant hitherto?"
Mr. Caxton.—"He is in long clothes at present; let us wait till he can walk."
Blanche.—"But pray whom do you mean for a hero?—and is Miss Jemima your heroine?"
Captain Roland.—"There is some mystery about the—"