_Jessamin_, foot boy to _Clarissa_. WOMEN. _Clarissa_, wife to _Gripe_, an } expensive luxurious woman, a great } Mrs. _Barry._ admirer of quality. } _Araminta_, wife to _Money-trap_, very } intimate with _Clarissa_, of the same } Mrs. _Porter._ humour. } _Corinna_, daughter to _Gripe_ by a } former wife, a good fortune, young, } Mrs. _Bradshaw._ and kept very close by her father. } _Flippanta_, _Clarissa_'s maid. Mrs. _Bracegirdle._ Mrs. _Amlet_, a seller of all sorts of } Mrs. _Willis._ private affairs to the ladies. } Mrs. _Cloggit_ her neighbour. Mrs. _Baker._ THE CONFEDERACY. +ACT+ I. +SCENE+ I. +SCENE+ _Covent-garden_. _Enter Mrs. ~Amlet~ and Mrs. ~Cloggit~, meeting._ =Amlet.= Good-morrow, neighbour; good-morrow, neighbour _Cloggit_! How does all at your house this morning? _Clog._ Think you kindly, _Mrs._ Amlet, thank you kindly; how do you do, I pray? _Aml._ At the old rate, neighbour, poor and honest; these are hard times, good lack. _Clog._ If they are hard with you, what are they with us? You have a good trade going, all the great folks in town help off with your merchandize. _Aml._ Yes, they do help us off with 'em indeed; they buy all. _Clog._ And pay---- _Aml._ For some. _Clog._ Well, 'tis a thousand pities, Mrs. _Amlet_, they are not as ready at one, as they are at t'other: For, not to wrong 'em, they give very good rates. _Aml._ O for that, let us do them justice, neighbour; they never make two words upon the price, all they haggle about is the day of payment. _Clog._ There's all the dispute, as you say. _Aml._ But that's a wicked one: For my part, neighbour, I'm just tir'd off my legs with trotting after 'em; beside, it eats out all our profit. Would you believe it, Mrs. _Cloggit_, I have worn out four pair of pattens, with following my old Lady _Youthful_, for one set of false teeth, and but three pots of paint. _Clog._ Look you there now. _Aml._ If they would but once let me get enough by 'em, to keep a coach to carry me a dunning after 'em, there would be some conscience in it. _Clog._ Ay, that were something. But now you talk of conscience, Mrs. _Amlet_, how do you speed among your city customers?