_Oliv._ 'Tis so: and for variety of rich clothes, they are more my aversion. _Let._ Ay, 'tis because your ladyship wears 'em too long; for indeed a gown, like a gallant, grows one's aversion by having too much of it. _Oliv._ Insatiable creature! I'll be sworn I have had this not above three days, cousin, and within this month have made some six more. _Eliza._ Then your aversion to 'em is not altogether so great. _Oliv._ Alas! 'tis for my woman only I wear 'em, cousin. _Let._ If it be for me only, madam, pray do not wear 'em. _Eliza._ But what d'ye think of visits--balls? _Oliv._ O, I detest 'em! _Eliza._ Of plays? _Oliv._ I abominate 'em; filthy, obscene, hideous things. _Eliza._ What say you to masquerading in the winter, and Hyde Park in the summer? _Oliv._ Insipid pleasures I taste not. _Eliza._ Nay, if you are are for more solid pleasures, what think you of a rich young husband? _Oliv._ O horrid! marriage! what a pleasure you have found out! I nauseate it of all things. _Let._ But what does your ladyship think then of a liberal handsome young lover? _Oliv._ A handsome young fellow, you impudent! begone out of my sight. Name a handsome young fellow to me! foh, a hideous handsome young fellow I abominate! [_Spits._ _Eliza._ Indeed! But let's see--will nothing please you? what d'ye think of the court? _Oliv._ How, the court! the court, cousin! my aversion, my aversion, my aversion of all aversions! _Eliza._ How, the court! where-- _Oliv._ Where sincerity is a quality as much out of fashion and as unprosperous as bashfulness: I could not laugh at a quibble, though it were a fat privy-counsellor's; nor praise a lord's ill verses, though I were myself the subject; nor an old lady's young looks, though I were her woman; nor sit to a vain young smile-maker, though he flattered me. In short, I could not glout[99] upon a man when he comes into a room, and laugh at him when he goes out; I cannot rail at the absent to flatter the standers-by; I-- _Eliza._ Well, but railing now is so common, that 'tis no more malice, but the fashion; and the absent think they are no more the worse for being railed at, than the present think they're the better for being flattered. And for the court-- _Oliv._ Nay, do not defend the court; for you'll make me rail at it like a trusting citizen's widow. _Eliza._ Or like a Holborn lady, who could not get in to the last ball, or was out of countenance in the drawing-room the last Sunday of her appearance there. For none rail at the court but those who cannot get into it, or else who are ridiculous when they are there; and I shall suspect you were laughed at when you were last there, or would be a maid of honour. _Oliv._ I a maid of honour! To be a maid of honour, were yet of all things my aversion.