MISS RICH. How, idiot! what do you mean? In love with Mr. Honeywood! Is this to provoke me? GARNET. That is, madam, in friendship with him; I meant nothing more than friendship, as I hope to be married; nothing more. MISS RICH. Well, no more of this. As to my guardian and his son, they shall find me prepared to receive them; I'm resolved to accept their proposal with seeming pleasure, to mortify them by compliance, and so throw the refusal at last upon them. GARNET. Delicious! and that will secure your whole fortune to yourself. Well, who could have thought so innocent a face could cover so much cuteness? MISS RICH. Why, girl, I only oppose my prudence to their cunning, and practise a lesson they have taught me against themselves. GARNET. Then you're likely not long to want employment; for here they come, and in close conference. _Enter_ CROAKER, LEONTINE. LEONT. Excuse me, sir, if I seem to hesitate upon the point of putting to the lady so important a question. CROAKER. Lord, good sir! moderate your fears; you're so plaguy shy, that one would think you had changed sexes. I tell you, we must have the half or the whole. Come, let me see with what spirit you begin. Well, why don't you? Eh? What? Well then—I must, it seems. Miss Richland, my dear, I believe you guess at our business; an affair which my son here comes to open, that nearly concerns your happiness. MISS RICH. Sir, I should be ungrateful not to be pleased with anything that comes recommended by you. CROAKER. How, boy, could you desire a finer opportunity? Why don't you begin, I say? [_To_ LEONT. LEONT. 'Tis true, madam, my father, madam, has some intentions—hem—of explaining an affair—which—himself—can best explain, madam. CROAKER. Yes, my dear; it comes entirely from my son; it's all a request of his own, madam. And I will permit him to make the best of it. LEONT. The whole affair is only this, madam; my father has a proposal to make, which he insists none but himself shall deliver. CROAKER. My mind misgives me, the fellow will never be brought on. (_Aside._) In short, madam, you see before you one that loves you; one whose whole happiness is all in you. MISS RICH. I never had any doubts of your regard, sir; and I hope you can have none of my duty. [Illustration: GARNET.—"_For being, as you are, in love with Mr. Honeywood, madam._"—_p._ 280. ] CROAKER. That's not the thing, my little sweeting, my love. No, no, another-guess lover than I, there he stands, madam; his very looks declare the force of his passion—Call up a look, you dog—But then, had you seen him, as I have, weeping, speaking soliloquies and blank verse, sometimes melancholy, and sometimes absent— MISS RICH. I fear, sir, he's absent now; or such a declaration would have come most properly from himself.