_Lady E._ I could find a thousand such; but I'll engage with none whose triumph I could not submit to with pleasure. _Sir C._ [_Apart._] Pretty significant on both sides. I wonder how much farther it will go. _Lady E._ Uncle, did you speak? _Sir C._ [_Reading to himself._] "And the parties to this indenture do farther covenant and agree, that all and every the said lands, tenements, and hereditaments--um--um."----How useful sometimes is ambiguity. [_Loud enough to be heard._ _Cliff._ A very natural observation of Sir Clement's upon that long parchment. [_Pauses again upon the Chess-board._ [_LADY EMILY looking pensively at his Face._ _Cliff._ To what a dilemma have you reduced me, Lady Emily! If I advance, I perish by my temerity; and it is out of my power to retreat. _Sir C._ [_Apart._] Better and better! To talk in cipher is a curious faculty. _Cliff._ Sir? _Sir C._ [_Still reading._] "In witness whereof the said parties have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals, this----um--um--day of--um----um----." _Lady E._ [_Resuming an Air of Vivacity._] Come, I trifle with you too long----There's your coup de grace----Uncle, I have conquered. [_Both rising from the Table._ _Sir C._ Niece, I do not doubt it----and in the style of the great proficients, without looking upon the board. Clifford, was not your mother's name Charlton? [_Folding up the Parchment, and rising._ _Cliff._ It was, sir. _Sir C._ In looking over the writings Alscrip has sent me, preparatory to his daughter's settlement, I find mention of a conveyance from a Sir William Charlton, of Devonshire. Was he a relation? _Cliff._ My grandfather, sir: The plunder of his fortune was one of the first materials for raising that of Mr. Alscrip, who was steward to Sir William's estate, then manager of his difficulties, and lastly his sole creditor. _Sir C._ And no better monopoly than that of a needy man's distresses. Alscrip has had twenty such, or I should not have singled out his daughter to be Lord Gayville's wife. _Cliff._ It is a compensation for my family losses, that in the event they will conduce to the interest of the man I most love. _Sir C._ Heyday, Clifford!--take care--don't trench upon the Blandish--Your cue, you know, is sincerity. _Cliff._ You seem to think, sir, there is no such quality. I doubt whether you believe there is an honest man in the world. _Sir C._ You do me great injustice--several--several--and upon the old principle that--"honesty is the best policy."--Self-interest is the great end of life, says human nature--Honesty is a better agent than craft, says proverb. _Cliff._ But as for ingenuous, or purely disinterested motives---- _Sir C._ Clifford, do you mean to laugh at me? _Cliff._ What is your opinion, Lady Emily?