BRODIE. No, Jean, this is where it ends. Uncle, this is where it ends. And to think that not an hour ago I still had hopes! Hopes! Ay, not an hour ago I thought of a new life. You were not forgotten, Jean. Leslie, you must try to forgive me ... you too! LESLIE. You are her brother. BRODIE (_to LAWSON_). And you. LAWSON. My name-child and my sister's bairn. BRODIE. You won't forget Jean, will you? nor the child? LAWSON. That I will not. MARY. O Willie, nor I. SCENE VII _To these, HUNT_ HUNT. The game's up, Deacon. I'll trouble you to come along with me. BRODIE (_behind the table_). One moment, officer: I have a word to say before witnesses ere I go. In all this there is but one man guilty; and that man is I. None else has sinned; none else must suffer. This poor woman (_pointing to JEAN_) I have used; she never understood. Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, that is my dying confession. (_He snatches his hanger from the table, and rushes upon HUNT, who parries, and runs him through. He reels across the stage and falls._) The new life ... the new life! (_He dies._) CURTAIN BEAU AUSTIN DEDICATED WITH ADMIRATION AND RESPECT TO GEORGE MEREDITH BOURNEMOUTH, _1st October, 1884_ PERSONS REPRESENTED GEORGE FREDERICK AUSTIN, called "Beau Austin" _AEtat._ 50 JOHN FENWICK, of Allonby Shaw " 26 ANTHONY MUSGRAVE, Cornet in the Prince's Own " 21 MENTEITH, the Beau's Valet " 55 A ROYAL DUKE. (Dumb show.) DOROTHY MUSGRAVE, Anthony's Sister " 25 MISS EVELINA FOSTER, her Aunt " 45 BARBARA RIDLEY, her Maid " 20 VISITORS TO THE WELLS The Time is 1820. The Scene is laid at Tunbridge Wells. The Action occupies a space of ten hours. PROLOGUE "To all and singular," as Dryden says, We bring a fancy of those Georgian days, Whose style still breathed a faint and fine perfume Of old-world courtliness and old-world bloom: When speech was elegant and talk was fit, For slang had not been canonised as wit; When manners reigned, when breeding had the wall, And Women--yes!--were ladies first of all; When Grace was conscious of its gracefulness, And man--though Man!--was not ashamed to dress. A brave formality, a measured ease, Were his--and hers--whose effort was to please. And to excel in pleasing was to reign, And, if you sighed, never to sigh in vain.