_Letit._ I have the strongest confidence in it. I am inspired with unusual spirits, and on this hazard willingly stake my chance for happiness. I am impatient to begin my measures. [_Exit_ Letitia. _Hardy._ Can you foresee the end of this, Cousin? _Mrs. Rack._ No, Sir; nothing less than your penetration can do that, I am sure; and I can't stay now to consider it. I am going to call on the Ogles, and then to Lady Frances Touchwood's, and then to an Auction, and then--I don't know where----but I shall be at home time enough to witness this extraordinary interview. Good-bye. [_Exit Mrs._ Racket. _Hardy._ Well, 'tis an odd thing--I can't understand it--but I foresee Letty will have her way, and so I sha'n't give myself the trouble to dispute it. [_Exit_ Hardy. END OF THE FIRST ACT. ACT II. SCENE I. _Sir George Touchwood_'s. _Enter_ Doricourt _and_ Sir George. _Doricourt._ Married, ha! ha! ha! you, whom I heard in Paris say such things of the sex, are in London a married man. _Sir Geo._ The sex is still what it has ever been since _la petite morale_ banished substantial virtues; and rather than have given my name to one of your high-bred fashionable dames, I'd have crossed the line in a fire-ship, and married a Japanese. _Doric._ Yet you have married an English beauty, yea, and a beauty born in high life. _Sir Geo._ True; but she has a simplicity of heart and manners, that would have become the fair Hebrew damsels toasted by the Patriarchs. _Doric._ Ha! ha! Why, thou art a downright matrimonial Quixote. My life on't, she becomes as mere a Town Lady in six months as though she had been bred to the trade. _Sir Geo._ Common--common--(_contemptuously_). No, Sir, Lady Frances despises high life so much from the ideas I have given her, that she'll live in it like a salamander in fire. _Doric._ Oh, that the circle _dans la place Victoire_ could witness thy extravagance! I'll send thee off to St. Evreux this night, drawn at full length, and coloured after nature. _Sir Geo._ Tell him then, to add to the ridicule, that Touchwood glories in the name of Husband; that he has found in one Englishwoman more beauty than Frenchmen ever saw, and more goodness than Frenchwomen can conceive. _Doric._ Well--enough of description. Introduce me to this phœnix; I came on purpose. _Sir Geo._ Introduce!--oh, aye, to be sure--I believe Lady Frances is engaged just now--but another time. How handsome the dog looks to-day! _Aside._ _Doric._ Another time!--but I have no other time. 'Sdeath! this is the only hour I can command this fortnight! _Sir Geo._ [_Aside._ I am glad to hear it, with all my soul.] So then, you can't dine with us to-day? That's very unlucky. _Doric._ Oh, yes--as to dinner--yes, I can, I believe, contrive to dine with you to-day. _Sir Geo._ Psha! I didn't think on what I was saying; I meant supper.--You can't sup with us?