POSTBOY. Sure me nothing—I'm sure of nothing but a good beating. CROAKER. Come then, you, madam; if you ever hope for any favour or forgiveness, tell me sincerely all you know of this affair. OLIVIA. Unhappily, sir, I'm but too much the cause of your suspicions; you see before you, sir, one, that with false pretences has stept into your family, to betray it: not your daughter— CROAKER. Not my daughter! OLIVIA. Not your daughter—but a mean deceiver—who—support me, I cannot— HONEYW. Help, she's going! give her air. CROAKER. Ay, ay, take the young woman to the air; I would not hurt a hair of her head, whoseever daughter she may be—not so bad as that neither. [_Exeunt all but_ CROAKER. CROAKER. Yes, yes, all's out; I now see the whole affair; my son is either married, or going to be so, to this lady, whom he imposed upon me as his sister. Ay, certainly so; and yet I don't find it afflicts me so much as one might think. There's the advantage of fretting away our misfortunes beforehand, we never feel them when they come. _Enter_ MISS RICHLAND _and_ SIR WILLIAM. SIR WILL. But how do you know, madam, that my nephew intends setting off from this place? MISS RICH. My maid assured me he was come to this inn, and my own knowledge of his intending to leave the kingdom, suggested the rest. But what do I see? my guardian here before us! Who, my dear sir, could have expected meeting you here? to what accident do we owe this pleasure? CROAKER. To a fool, I believe. MISS RICH. But to what purpose did you come? CROAKER. To play the fool. MISS RICH. But with whom? CROAKER. With greater fools than myself. MISS RICH. Explain. CROAKER. Why, Mr. Honeywood brought me here, to do nothing now I am here; and my son is going to be married to I don't know who that is here; so now you are as wise as I am. MISS RICH. Married! to whom, sir? CROAKER. To Olivia; my daughter, as I took her to be; but who the devil she is, or whose daughter she is, I know no more than the man in the moon. SIR WILL. Then, sir, I can inform you; and though a stranger, yet you shall find me a friend to your family: it will be enough at present to assure you, that, both in point of birth and fortune, the young lady is at least your son's equal. Being left by her father, Sir James Woodville— CROAKER. Sir James Woodville! What of the west!