CHARLOTTE. [His conversation is like a rich, old-fashioned brocade,--it will stand alone; every sentence is a sentiment. Now you may judge what a time I had with him, in my twelve months' visit to my father. He read me such lectures, out of pure brotherly affection, against the extremes of fashion, dress, flirting, and coquetry, and all the other dear things which he knows I dote upon, that I protest his conversation made me as melancholy as if I had been at church; and, heaven knows, though I never prayed to go there but on one occasion, yet I would have exchanged his conversation for a psalm and a sermon. Church is rather melancholy, to be sure; but then I can ogle the beaux, and be regaled with "here endeth the first lesson," but his brotherly _here_, you would think had no end.] You captivate him! Why, my dear, he would as soon fall in love with a box of Italian flowers. There is Maria, now, if she were not engaged, she might do something. Oh! how I should like to see that pair of pensorosos together, looking as grave as two sailors' wives of a stormy night, with a flow of sentiment meandering through their conversation like purling streams in modern poetry. LETITIA. Oh! my dear fanciful-- CHARLOTTE. Hush! I hear some person coming through the entry. _Enter SERVANT._ SERVANT. Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls himself Colonel Manly; do you choose to be at home? CHARLOTTE. Shew him in. [_Exit SERVANT._] Now for a sober face. _Enter COLONEL MANLY._ MANLY. My dear Charlotte, I am happy that I once more enfold you within the arms of fraternal affection. I know you are going to ask (amiable impatience!) how our parents do,--the venerable pair transmit you their blessing by me--they totter on the verge of a well-spent life, and wish only to see their children settled in the world, to depart in peace. CHARLOTTE. I am very happy to hear that they are well. [_Coolly._] Brother, will you give me leave to introduce you to our uncle's ward, one of my most intimate friends? MANLY [_Saluting LETITIA._]. I ought to regard your friends as my own. CHARLOTTE. Come, Letitia, do give us a little dash of your vivacity; my brother is so sentimental and so grave, that I protest he'll give us the vapours. MANLY. Though sentiment and gravity, I know, are banished the polite world, yet I hoped they might find some countenance in the meeting of such near connections as brother and sister. CHARLOTTE. Positively, brother, if you go one step further in this strain, you will set me crying, and that, you know, would spoil my eyes; and then I should never get the husband which our good papa and mamma have so kindly wished me--never be established in the world.