TONY. As for disappointing them, I should not so much mind; but I can’t abide to disappoint myself. MRS. HARDCASTLE. (detaining him.) You shan’t go. TONY. I will, I tell you. MRS. HARDCASTLE. I say you shan’t. TONY. We’ll see which is strongest, you or I. [Exit, hauling her out.] HARDCASTLE. (solus.) Ay, there goes a pair that only spoil each other. But is not the whole age in a combination to drive sense and discretion out of doors? There’s my pretty darling Kate! the fashions of the times have almost infected her too. By living a year or two in town, she is as fond of gauze and French frippery as the best of them. Enter MISS HARDCASTLE. HARDCASTLE. Blessings on my pretty innocence! drest out as usual, my Kate. Goodness! What a quantity of superfluous silk hast thou got about thee, girl! I could never teach the fools of this age, that the indigent world could be clothed out of the trimmings of the vain. MISS HARDCASTLE. You know our agreement, sir. You allow me the morning to receive and pay visits, and to dress in my own manner; and in the evening I put on my housewife’s dress to please you. HARDCASTLE. Well, remember, I insist on the terms of our agreement; and, by the bye, I believe I shall have occasion to try your obedience this very evening. MISS HARDCASTLE. I protest, sir, I don’t comprehend your meaning. HARDCASTLE. Then to be plain with you, Kate, I expect the young gentleman I have chosen to be your husband from town this very day. I have his father’s letter, in which he informs me his son is set out, and that he intends to follow himself shortly after. MISS HARDCASTLE. Indeed! I wish I had known something of this before. Bless me, how shall I behave? It’s a thousand to one I shan’t like him; our meeting will be so formal, and so like a thing of business, that I shall find no room for friendship or esteem. HARDCASTLE. Depend upon it, child, I’ll never control your choice; but Mr. Marlow, whom I have pitched upon, is the son of my old friend, Sir Charles Marlow, of whom you have heard me talk so often. The young gentleman has been bred a scholar, and is designed for an employment in the service of his country. I am told he’s a man of an excellent understanding. MISS HARDCASTLE. Is he? HARDCASTLE. Very generous. MISS HARDCASTLE. I believe I shall like him. HARDCASTLE. Young and brave. MISS HARDCASTLE. I’m sure I shall like him. HARDCASTLE. And very handsome. MISS HARDCASTLE. My dear papa, say no more, (kissing his hand), he’s mine; I’ll have him. HARDCASTLE. And, to crown all, Kate, he’s one of the most bashful and reserved young fellows in all the world. MISS HARDCASTLE. Eh! you have frozen me to death again. That word RESERVED has undone all the rest of his accomplishments. A reserved lover, it is said, always makes a suspicious husband.