TONY: Crackskull Common by my guess, forty miles from home. Don't be afraid. Is that a man galloping behind us? Don't be afraid. MRS. HARDCASTLE: Oh, there's a man coming! We are undone! TONY (_aside_): Father-in-law, by all that's unlucky! Hide yourself, and keep close; if I cough it will mean danger. [_Enter_ HARDCASTLE. HARDCASTLE: I am sure I heard voices. What, Tony? Are you back already? (TONY _laughs_.) MRS. HARDCASTLE (_running forward_): Oh, lud; he'll murder my poor boy! Here, good gentleman, whet your rage on me. Take my money, take my life, good Mr. Highwayman, but spare my child. HARDCASTLE: Sure, Dorothy, you have lost your wits? This is one of your tricks, you graceless rogue. Don't you remember me, and the mulberry-tree, and the horsepond? MRS. HARDCASTLE: I shall remember it as long as I live. And this is your doing--you---- TONY: Ecod, mother, all the parish says you've spoilt me, so you may take the fruits on't. [_Exeunt_. Miss Neville thinks better of the elopement, and resolves to appeal to Mr. Hardcastle's influence with his wife. This improved plan is carried to a successful issue, with great satisfaction to Tony Lumpkin. SCENE III.--_The hall_. SIR CHARLES MARLOW _and_ HARDCASTLE _witness, from concealment, the formal proposal of_ MARLOW _to make the supposed "poor relation" his wife. They break in_. SIR CHARLES: Charles, Charles, how thou hast deceived me! Is this your indifference? HARDCASTLE: Your cold contempt? Your formal interview? What have you to say? MARLOW: That I'm all amazement. What does it mean? HARDCASTLE: It means that you say and unsay things at pleasure; that you can address a lady in private and deny it in public; that you have one story for us and another for my daughter. MARLOW: Daughter? This lady your daughter? Oh, the devil! Oh--! KATE: In which of your characters may we address you? The faltering gentleman who looks on the ground and hates hypocrisy, or the bold, forward Agreeable Rattle of the ladies' club? MARLOW: Zounds, this is worse than death! I must be gone. HARDCASTLE: But you shall not! I see it was all a mistake. She'll forgive you; we'll all forgive you. Courage, man! And if she makes as good a wife as she has a daughter, I don't believe you'll ever repent your bargain. So now to supper. To-morrow we shall gather all the poor of this parish about us; the mistakes of the night shall be crowned with a merry morning. FOOTNOTES: