[_Gives his hand to_ MRS. MALAPROP. _Exit singing, and handing her off. Exit_ CAPTAIN ABSOLUTE _with_ LYDIA _in the opposite direction._ BEAU BRUMMELL BLANCHARD JERROLD ACT I, SCENE I CHARACTERS: Beau Brummell, a fastidious aristocrat with luxurious tastes and a depleted fortune; Isidore, his valet; Mr. Fotherby, his aspiring young protege. SCENE: A handsome apartment in Brummell's house, Calais, France. Isidore discovered, in chair, looking over his master's toilette table. ISIDORE. Twenty shirts a week, twenty-four pocket-handkerchiefs, to say nothing of thirty cravats and twelve waistcoats--indeed, for people that cannot pay their servants! Well, he owes me just six thousand three hundred and thirty-seven francs, ten sous. [_Picks up paper._] Ah, I see, I'm in the list. It costs something to have the honor of serving Mr. Brummell--to be chamberlain to His Majesty, the King of Calais! But he is a wonderful man! People almost thank him for condescending to be in their debt; still, much as I esteem the honor, I can't afford it any longer, nor can the laundress, nor can the hairdresser. Eight hundred francs a year for washing! Three clean shirts a day, three cravats! Boots blacked, soles and all, and with such varnish! But then he has such exquisite taste! why, he blackballed a friend of his who wanted to enter his club, because the candidate's boots were polished with bad blacking. I wonder whether the king will do anything for him? It is Mr. Brummell's dressing hour, and here he comes. [_Enter_ BRUMMELL, _letter in hand_. ISIDORE _busies himself piling cravats upon the side of dressing table, and wheels chair to the mirror_. BRUMMELL _throws himself in the chair before the glass, examines the cravats and throws two or three of them away_. BRUMMELL. Isidore, take those dusters away; the chambermaid has forgotten them. [_Re-reads the letter_.] Strange girl this; the only thing I know against her is that she takes soup twice. It's the old story. Her father wants her to marry a fellow who can keep her, and she wants to have a young fellow who can't. Well, the young fellow who can't is the more interesting of the two. I must ask the father to dinner I suppose--it's a deuced bore; but it will put him under a heavy obligation. I must make excuses to Ballarat and Gill. Isidore, when I'm dressed take my compliments to Mr. Davis, and tell him I shall be happy to see him at dinner to-day. ISID. Very well, sir. [_Aside_.] To Davis, a retired fellow from the city! This is a tumble!--I am sorry to trouble you, sir, but---- BRUM. I can't talk to you to-day, Isidore. Give me a cravat. ISID. [_handing one_]. I am a poor man, and six thousand francs----