The Heiress Part 17

_Sir C._ Her!--whom?

_Prompt._ [_LADY EMILY turning._] I ask your ladyship's pardon--Having only the glimpse of a petticoat, and knowing the object of my chase was in this house, I confess I mistook you.

_Sir C._ In this house?

_Prompt._ As sure as we are--She came in through the garden, under Mr.

Clifford's arm--up the other stairs, I suppose.--If my lady had been hereabouts, she must have seen her.

_Lady E._ [_In confusion._] Yes; but, unluckily, I was quite out of the way.

_Sir C._ Such audaciousness pa.s.ses credibility.--Emily, what do you think of him?

_Lady E._ That he is a monster.--[_Aside._] How my dilemmas multiply!

_Sir C._ What, to my house! to his apartment here! I wonder he did not ask for protection in yours.--What should you have said?

_Lady E._ I don't know; but, had I been so imposed upon as to receive her, I should scorn to betray even the criminal I had engaged to protect.

_Sir C._ [_Tries at the Door, and finds it locked._] Emily, my dear, do ring the bell, to know if the housekeeper has a second key to this lock.

_Lady E._ What shall I do?

_Prompt._ She is certainly there, sir, and cannot escape. Where can she better remain, till you can a.s.semble all parties, confront them, face to face, and bring every thing that has pa.s.sed to a full explanation?

_Sir C._ With all my heart; send and collect every body concerned as fast as possible.--How I long for so complicated an exhibition of the purity of the human heart; Come with me, Emily, and help to digest my plan,--Friends and lovers, what a scene shall we show you!

[_Takes LADY EMILY under the Arm.--Exeunt._

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE I.

_An Apartment._

_Enter CLIFFORD and MR. RIGHTLY._

_Cliff._ Your knowledge in the profession, Mr. Rightly, is as unquestionable as your integrity; but there is something so surprising in the recovery of the Charlton estate.--If you knew, too, how the value of the acquisition is enhanced, by the opportune moment in which it presents itself--I am in too much emotion to thank you as I ought.

_Rightly._ Sir, I want neither compliment, nor acknowledgment, for revealing what I should be a party to dishonesty to conceal.

_Cliff._ You have a right to all my thoughts: but I have an appointment to obey, that admits no time for explanation; favour me for a moment with your pencil, [_RIGHTLY takes out a Pencil and Pocket-book._] and a blank page in that memorandum-book.

[_CLIFFORD writes._

_Rightly._ My life on't, his head is turned upon some girl not worth a shilling--There is an amiable defect, but a very observable one, in the nature of some men. A good head and heart operate as effectually as vice or folly could do to make them improvident.

_Cliff._ Mr. Rightly, I confide to your hands a new secret relative to the Charlton estate; do not read it till you return home. [_Gives the Book, aside, and going._] There, Gayville, is one reply to your challenge--and now for another.

_Rightly._ One moment, sir--I engage for no secrecy that my own judgment shall not warrant.

_Cliff._ And the benevolence of your heart approve--Those are my conditions.

[_Exeunt on opposite Sides._

SCENE II.

_Hyde Park._

_Enter LORD GAYVILLE impetuously, looking at his Watch._

_Lord G._ Not here! I am sure I marked the hour as well as the place, precisely in my note. [_Walks about._] Had I been told three days ago, that I should have been the appellant in a premeditated duel, I should have thought it an insult upon my principles--That Clifford should be the cause of my transgressing the legal and sacred duties, we have ever both maintained--oh, it would have seemed a visionary impossibility--But he comes, to cut reflections short--

_Enter CLIFFORD._

_Lord G._ I waited for you, sir.

_Cliff._ [_Bows in Silence._]

_Lord G._ That ceremonial would grace an encounter of punctilio, but applies ill to the terms upon which I have called you here.

_Cliff._ What terms are those, my lord?

_Lord G._ Vengeance! Ample, final vengeance! Draw, sir.

_Cliff._ No, my lord; my sword is reserved for more becoming purposes: It is not the instrument of pa.s.sion; and has yet been untried in a dispute with my friend.

_Lord G._ But why is it not ready for a different trial, the vindication of perfidy, the blackest species of perfidy, that ever the malignant enemy of mankind infused into the human breast--perfidy to the friend who loved and trusted you, and in the nearest interests of his heart.

_Cliff._ Take care, my lord; should my blood boil like yours, and it is rising fast, you know not the punishment that awaits you. I came temperate, your gross provocation and thirst of blood make temperance appear disgrace--I am tempted to take a revenge--

_Lord G._ [_Draws._] The means are ready. Come, sir, you are to give an example of qualities generally held incompatible--bravery and dishonour.

_Cliff._ Another such a word, and by Heaven!--How have I deserved this opinion?

_Lord G._ Ask your conscience--Under the mask of friendship you have held a secret intercourse with the woman I adore; you have supplanted me in her affections, you have robbed me of the very charm of my life--can you deny it?

_Cliff._ I avow it all.

_Lord G._ Unparalleled insolence of guilt!

_Cliff._ Are you sure there is nothing within the scope of possibility that would excuse or atone--

_Lord G._ Death--Death only--no abject submission--no compromise for infamy--chuse instantly--and save yourself from the only stretch of baseness left--the invention of falsehood to palliate.--