‘And on Lady Harriet’s saying, very giddily, that it was too soon for her to think at that rate, Lady Charlotte properly adds, ‘“They that think it too soon to understand themselves, will very soon find it too late.” ‘In how ridiculous a light does Lady Harriet appear, while she is displaying all that foolish coquetry! And how different a figure does she make, when she has got the better of it? ‘My Lady Brumpton, when alarmed with the least noise, breaks out into all the convulsive starts natural to conscious guilt. ‘“Ha! what noise is that--that noise of fighting?--Run, I say.--Whither are you going?--What, are you mad?--Will you leave me alone?--Can’t you stir?--What, you can’t take your message with you!--Whatever ‘tis, I suppose you are not in the plot, not you--nor that now they’re breaking open my house for Charlotte--Not you.--Go see what’s the matter, I say; I have nobody I can trust.--One minute I think this wench honest, and the next false.--Whither shall I turn me?” ‘This is a picture of the confused, the miserable mind of a close, malicious, cruel, designing woman, as Lady Brumpton was, and as Lady Harriet very properly calls her. ‘Honesty and faithfulness shine forth in all their lustre, in the good old Trusty. We follow him throughout with anxious wishes for his success, and tears of joy for his tenderness. And when he finds that he is likely to come at the whole truth, and to save his lord from being deceived and betrayed into unjustly ruining his noble son, you may remember that he makes this pious reflection: All that is ours, is to be justly bent; And Heaven in its own time will bless th’ event. ‘This is the natural thought that proceeds from innocence and goodness; and surely this state of mind is happiness. ‘I have only pointed out a few passages, to show you, that though it is the nature of comedy to end happily, and therefore the good characters must be successful in the last act; yet the moral lies deeper, and is to be deduced from a proof throughout this play, that the natural consequence of vice is misery within, even in the midst of an apparent triumph; and the natural consequence of goodness is a calm peace of mind, even in the midst of oppression and distress.