I have a father, and can have no will of my own. Sir LUKE. So then it seems poor Pil Garlick here is discarded at once. SERJEANT. Why, could you have the impudence, after what has happen'd, to hope that---- Mrs. CIRCUIT. He has given wonderful proofs of his modesty. Sir LUKE. Be quiet, Mrs. Circuit.--Come, good folks, I will set all matters to rights in a minute; and first, Mr. Serjeant, it becomes me to tell you, that I never intended to marry your daughter. SERJEANT. How! never! Sir LUKE. Never. She is a fine girl I allow; but would it now, Mr. Serjeant, have been honest in me, to have robb'd the whole sex of my person, and confin'd my favors to her? SERJEANT. How! Sir LUKE. No! I was struck with the immorality of the thing; and therefore to make it impossible that you should ever give me your daughter, I invented the story I told you concerning Mrs. Circuit and me. SERJEANT. How! Sir LUKE. Truth, upon my honour.--Your wife there will tell you the whole was a lye. SERJEANT. Nay, then indeed.--But with what face can I look up to my dear? I have injur'd her beyond the hopes of forgiveness.--Wou'd you, lovee, but pass an act of oblivion-- Sir LUKE. See me here prostrate to implore your clemency in behalf of my friend. Mrs. CIRCUIT. Of that I can't determine directly.--But as you seem to have some sense of your guilt, I shall grant you a reprieve for the present, which contrition and amendment may, perhaps, in time swell into a pardon. But if again offending you are caught, SERJEANT. Then let me suffer, dearee, as I ought. FINIS. TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Contemporary spelling has been retained, even where inconsistent, although a very few obvious typographical errors have been corrected (e.g. identity replaced idenity). Missing punctuation has been added. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lame Lover, by Samuel Foote