CHE. Your niece, madam, desires to see you. If my visit here has at all annoyed you, believe me I am sorry for it, and can assure you that the annoyance will not be repeated; for Miss Meadows and I are now as strangers! MISS MAC. I am rejoiced to hear it. CHE. I should have been proud and happy to have made her my wife without asking one question as to _her_ origin or connexions, so great was the confidence I reposed in her. She has proved that her faith cannot equal mine; and on that point we have parted, and for ever! Good morning. [_Exit F.D._ MISS MAC. The most pleasant piece of intelligence I have heard to-day. _Re-enter MISS MEADOWS, F.E.L._ MISS MEA. Has he gone? MISS MAC. To my great delight he has. MISS MEA. Will he return? MISS MAC. I have great hopes that he will not. MISS MEA. Why does he refuse to explain all to me? MISS MAC. As he has not asked you any questions, and appears quite willing to take a blind bargain in marrying you, I think it is but fair that you should be equally as ridiculous as the gentleman. MISS MEA. You make no allowance for a woman's natural curiosity--her proneness to jealousy, weaknesses that do not beset the minds of men so cruelly as they do ours. He knows _that_, and ought to have yielded! MISS MAC. Come, come, my dear, come to your room. _(Crosses to L.)_ I am very happy that this sad flirtation is at an end--I suspected you were both exceeding the bounds of discretion; and when you have gained my experience, you will regard all men with the same stern antipathy that _I_ do! Come, come, don't cry, dear. We are going out to tea, and you mustn't cry. Weep for the loss of your kitten--the death of your bird--the spoiling of a new dress--but scorn to shed one tear for the loss of a man! It is quite useless; for the monster always carries such a large umbrella of selfishness, that the most pelting shower of tears can never, never penetrate him! Come, come. [_Exit, leading off MISS MEADOWS._ SCENE II.--_A room at MISS SNARE'S--two chairs._ _Enter PINKEY and NIGGLE, F.E.R._ PIN. Before the company comes, I really _do_ want your advice on the matter. You have had experience with the ladies, Mr. Niggle--you have often popped in your time, I'll be bound. Pray tell me how do you begin? Give me a lesson in the art. NIG. First get a favourable opportunity. PIN. All in the dark, eh? While you are talking, snuff out the candles, and _then_, eh? NIG. No, no, there may seem too much of jest in that. Contrive some moonlight walk with your lady; or manage to be sitting alone with her on some lovely autumn evening, in the light of the sinking sun, when all nature seems going to repose. I popped to my first love on just such an evening, and had to fight her brother on a wet foggy morning a month afterwards! PIN. I'd rather not fight any brothers--I only want to pop to the sister; I don't want any brothers to be popping at me in return! Oh, no.