_Lady E._ Upon the broad basis of family hatred. Excellent, my dear uncle, excellent indeed; and upon that principle, though the lady is likely to be your niece, and my sister, I am sure you will have no objection to my laughing at her a little. _Sir C._ You'll be puzzled to make her more ridiculous than I think her. What is your plan? _Lady E._ Why, though her pride is to be thought a leader in fashions, she is sometimes a servile copyist. Blandish tells me I am her principal model; and what is most provoking, she is intent upon catching my manner as well as my dress, which she exaggerates to an excess that vexes me. Now if she will take me in shade, I'll give her a new outline, I am resolved; and if I do not make her a caricature for a printshop---- _Cliff._ Will all this be strictly consistent with your goodnature, Lady Emily? _Lady E._ No, nor I don't know when I shall do any thing consistent with it again, except leaving you two critics to a better subject than your humble servant. [_Courtesies, and exit with a lively air._ _Sir C._ Well, Clifford! What do you think of her? _Cliff._ That when she professes ill-temper, she is a very awkward counterfeit. _Sir C._ But her beauty, her wit, her improvement since you went abroad? I expected from a man of your age and taste, something more than a cold compliment upon her temper. Could not you, compatibly with the immaculate sincerity you profess, venture as far as admiration? _Cliff._ I admire her, sir, as I do a bright star in the firmament, and consider the distance of both as equally immeasurable. _Sir C._ [_Aside._] Specious rogue! [_To him._] Well, leave Emily then to be winked at through telescopes; and now to a matter of nearer observation----What is Gayville doing? _Cliff._ Every thing you desire, sir, I trust; but you know I have been at home only three days, and have hardly seen him since I came. _Sir C._ Nor I neither; but I find he has profited wonderfully by foreign experience. After rambling half the world over without harm, he is caught, like a travelled woodcock, at his landing. _Cliff._ If you suspect Lord Gayville of indiscretion, why do you not put him candidly to the test? I'll be bound for his ingenuousness not to withold any confession you may require. _Sir C._ You may be right, but he'll confess more to you in an hour, than to me in a month, for all that; come, Clifford, look as you ought to do at your interest--Sift him--Watch him--You cannot guess how much you will make me your friend, and how grateful I may be if you will discover---- _Cliff._ Sir, you mistake the footing upon which Lord Gayville and I live----I am often the partner of his thoughts, but never a spy upon his actions. [_Bows and exit._