_Sav._ So Miss Hardy, with only beauty, modesty, and merit, is doom'd to the arms of a husband who will despise her. _Doric._ You are unjust. Though she has not inspir'd me with violent passion, my honour secures her felicity. _Sav._ Come, come, Doricourt, you know very well that when the honour of a husband is _locum-tenens_ for his heart, his wife must be as indifferent as himself, if she is not unhappy. _Doric._ Pho! never moralise without spectacles. But, as we are upon the tender subject, how did you bear Touchwood's carrying Lady Frances? _Sav._ You know I never look'd up to her with hope, and Sir George is every way worthy of her. _Doric._ _A la mode Angloise_, a philosopher even in love. _Sav._ Come, I detain you--you seem dress'd at all points, and of course have an engagement. _Doric._ To St. James's. I dine at Hardy's, and accompany them to the masquerade in the evening: but breakfast with me to-morrow, and we'll talk of our old companions; for I swear to you, Saville, the air of the Continent has not effaced one youthful prejudice or attachment. _Sav._--With an exception to the case of Ladies and Servants. _Doric._ True; there I plead guilty:--but I have never yet found any man whom I could cordially take to my heart, and call Friend, who was not born beneath a British sky, and whose heart and manners were not truly English. [_Exit_ Doricourt _and_ Saville. SCENE IV.--_An Apartment at Mr._ Hardy'_s_. Villers _seated on a sopha, reading_. _Enter_ Flutter. _Flut._ Hah, Villers, have you seen Mrs. Racket?----Miss Hardy, I find, is out. _Vill._ I have not seen her yet. I have made a voyage to Lapland since I came in. (_flinging away the book._) A Lady at her toilette is as difficult to be moved, as a Quaker, (_yawning_). What events have happened in the world since yesterday? have you heard? _Flut._ Oh, yes; I stopt at Tattersall's as I came by, and there I found Lord James Jessamy, Sir William Wilding, and Mr.----. But, now I think of it, you sha'n't know a syllable of the matter; for I have been informed you never believe above one half of what I say. _Vill._ My dear fellow, somebody has imposed upon you most egregiously!--Half! Why, I never believe one tenth part of what you say; that is, according to the plain and literal expression: but, as I understand you, your intelligence is amusing. _Flut._ That's very hard now, very hard. I never related a falsity in my life, unless I stumbled on it by mistake; and if it were otherwise, your dull matter-of-fact people are infinitely oblig'd to those warm imaginations which soar into fiction to amuse you; for, positively, the common events of this little dirty world are not worth talking about, unless you embellish 'em!----Hah! here comes Mrs. Racket: Adieu to weeds, I see! All life! _Enter Mrs._ Racket. Enter, Madam, in all your charms! Villers has been abusing your toilette for keeping you so long; but I think we are much oblig'd to it, and so are you.