CUTLET You seem distressed, Sir. Bless me! PENDULOUS I am, friend, above the reach of comfort. CUTLET Consolation, then, can be to no purpose? PENDULOUS None. CUTLET I am so happy to have met with him! PENDULOUS Wretch, wretch, wretch! CUTLET There he goes! How he walks about biting his nails! I would not exchange this luxury of unavailing pity for worlds. PENDULOUS Stigmatized by the world-- CUTLET My case exactly. Let us compare notes. PENDULOUS For an accident which-- CUTLET For a profession which-- PENDULOUS In the eye of reason has nothing in it-- CUTLET Absolutely nothing in it-- PENDULOUS Brought up at a public bar-- CUTLET Brought up to an odious trade-- PENDULOUS With nerves like mine-- CUTLET With nerves like mine-- PENDULOUS Arraigned, condemned-- CUTLET By a foolish world-- PENDULOUS By a judge and jury-- CUTLET By an invidious exclusion disqualified for sitting upon a jury at all-- PENDULOUS Tried, cast, and-- CUTLET What? PENDULOUS HANGED, Sir, HANGED by the neck, till I was-- CUTLET Bless me! PENDULOUS Why should not I publish it to the whole world, since she, whose prejudice alone I wished to overcome, deserts me? CUTLET Lord have mercy upon us! not so bad as that comes to, I hope? PENDULOUS When she joins in the judgment of an illiberal world against me-- CUTLET You said HANGED, Sir--that is, I mean, perhaps I mistook you. How ghastly he looks! PENDULOUS Fear me not, my friend. I am no ghost--though I heartily wish I were one. CUTLET Why, then, ten to one you were-- PENDULOUS _Cut down._ The odious word shall out, though it choak me. CUTLET Your case must have some things in it very curious. I daresay you kept a journal of your sensations. PENDULOUS Sensations! CUTLET Aye, while you were being--you know what I mean. They say persons in your situation have lights dancing before their eyes--blueish. But then the worst of all is coming to one's self again. PENDULOUS Plagues, furies, tormentors! I shall go mad! [_Exit._] CUTLET There, he says he shall go mad. Well, my head has not been very right of late. It goes with a whirl and a buzz somehow. I believe I must not think so deeply. Common people that don't reason know nothing of these aberrations. Great wits go mad, and small ones only dull; Distracting cares vex not the empty skull: They seize on heads that think, and hearts that feel, As flies attack the--better sort of veal. [_Exit._] ACT II SCENE.--At Flint's. FLINT. WILLIAM. FLINT I have overwalked myself, and am quite exhausted. Tell Marian to come and play to me. WILLIAM I shall, Sir. [_Exit._] FLINT I have been troubled with an evil spirit of late; I think an evil spirit. It goes and comes, as my daughter is with or from me. It cannot stand before her gentle look, when, to please her father, she takes down her music-book. _Enter William._ WILLIAM Miss Marian went out soon after you, and is not returned.