_Mrs G_ (Advancing to me, and making a low curt'sey, with a most scornful and sarcastical air) May I presume to enquire what your mightiness's pleasure is in regard to me? Do you intend to keep me for your nurse against your next illness, or to send me to the grand seignior's seraglio to wait upon the first sultana? _Mr F_ Neither (carelessly, and looking another way). I have not yet determined which way I shall dispose of you. _Mrs G_ _Dispose_ of me! _dispose_ of me! why sure the man has lost his senses! _Mr F_ Look you, Mrs Gerrarde; we will no longer play at cross-purposes: sit down, and be calm for a few minutes, till you hear what I have to say. (She did so, with a kind of impatience in her looks, that informed me I might have made a very free proposal, without any great danger of her resentment). _Mr F_ How long have you and I been acquainted? _Mrs G_ Lord! what is that question to the purpose? _Mr F_ 'Tis only in order to my desiring you would look back, and, upon recollection, ask yourself, if you ever had any reason to look upon me as your lover. _Mrs G_ I made that observation to you when we were travelling together: what is the use of it now? _Mr F_ Did I, in the course of our journey, declare myself to be such, or drop the least hint of devoting myself to you on any condition? _Mrs G_ We did not talk on the subject at all. _Mr F_ Did I ever presume, on the advantage of having you in my power, to venture on the smallest liberty with you; or ever deviate from that respect in my behaviour, that I was used, at all other times, to treat you with? _Mrs G_ I do not say you did; and it was that very behaviour that inclined me to imagine you had other thoughts than those I find you have. _Mr F_ You drew a wrong conclusion, though it is to be confessed not a very unnatural one. Such a behaviour might have been so construed by a lady otherwise circumstanced than you were; but I think a woman of your sagacity might have concluded, that, with Mrs Gerrarde, a man would first have tried his fortune upon gentler terms than those of matrimony. _Mrs G_ Well, well (peevishly); I do not understand your riddles: to the point. _Mr F_ Why, the point, in short, is this; that, without any particular designs on your person, my whole view, in carrying you out of England, was to break off your intercourse with Mr Arnold. (She seemed thunder-struck; but recovering herself, And is _this_ what I am to hear calmly? And she flounced off the chair to the other end of the room. I followed her; and, taking her hand, begged she would sit down again, and hear me out. I drew her to a chair, and gently set her down in it). _Mr F_ Now, for your own sake, hear me with patience; violence or perverseness will be of no use to you. _Mrs G_ Very well, Sir; I am your prisoner; your _slave_ at present: say what you please; 'tis _your_ turn _now_.