MISS SKY. _(Reading.)_ "Dear object!"--here it is--even "seared and desolate" isn't his own. Was there ever such impertinence--Oh! I'm in such a rage, if he were here I'd fling all his paltry letters in his face. _(Turning over the leaves of the book.)_ Here they all are--"Loveliest of women"--"fly on the wings of love"--"meet my charmer"--"happy in her embraces for ever." Here they all are word for word. How much did the book cost? MISS SNA. Eighteen-pence. MISS SKY. His despairing letters! his ardent letters! his reasonable letters! his polite letters! all, all copied from this book. And is it possible that so much despair, so much ardour, so much reason, so much politeness could have cost him but eighteen-pence; when I had fondly imagined they had cost him tears, and lonely hours of agony, and sighs and groans.--Oh! the little monster, if I could meet him now, I'd make him stand in the middle of the room, surrounded by his letters; I'd then set fire to them, and see him perish a martyr to his cool duplicity. [_A knock._ MISS SNA. Hush! he's here. MISS SKY. Is he? I'll let him know that my affections are not to be obtained under false pretences. [_A knock at the door, F.E.L._ MISS SNA. Come in. _Re-enter PINKEY with a paper in his hand, F.E.L._ PIN. It's only me. I've got the speech. _(Aside.)_ There's the old lady come, Miss Snare, and her neice that lives with her; you asked them here you know to find out who they are. And the strange young man, that nobody can learn what he can be, is here, too. The ladies were asking for you, and I said I'd find you for them. MISS SNA. You're very kind, I'll go to them directly. What do you think?--the young man that I have watched walking in the fields, every now and then, with the neice of the old maid at the cottage, and that we suspect is related to Miss Coy, is actually come here to tea this evening. MISS SKY. Have you invited him? MISS SNA. I caught him making a sketch of my little house here, and I told him as he seemed so taken with the beauty of its exterior that he was welcome to step in and survey the interior. Then I told him that two friends of his were coming here this evening, and that I should be happy to see him meet them. And he is actually come? _(To PINKEY.)_ PIN. Yes, down stairs walking about by himself. MISS SNA. Excellent! I long to understand the mystery that not only seems to surround him, but Miss Coy, and the other two ladies. So what with them, and Niggle and Damper, who are both coming---- MISS SKY. And of course Mr. Boss? MISS SNA. Oh, yes; Mr. Boss of course. MISS SKY. Hem? MISS SNA. Now don't look so sly at me--I confess the soft impeachment; but it is purely platonic, it is indeed. Well, when we are altogether, I expect my tea party will go off with eclat. Come to us as soon as you can. PIN. _(Offering his arm to MISS SNARE.)_ Allow me to escort you? _(Crosses to L.)_ MISS SNA. Oh, no sir; offer your arm to the lady that has the greatest right to it.