The Heiress Part 7

_The nightingale plunder'd, the mate-widow'd dove,_ _The warbled complaint of the suffering grove,_ _To youth as it ripened gave sentiment new,_ _The object still changing, the sympathy true._

_Soft embers of pa.s.sion yet rest in the glow--_ _A warmth of more pain may this breast never know!_ _Or if too indulgent the blessing I claim,_ _Let reason awaken, and govern the flame._

_Miss Als._ I declare not amiss, Blandish: only a little too plaintive--but I dare say she can play a country dance, when the enlivening is required--So, Miss Alton, you are welcome to my protection; and indeed I wish you to stay from this hour. My toilet being nearly finished, I shall have a horrid vacation till dinner.

_Miss Alton._ Madam, you do me great honour, and I very readily obey you.

_Mrs. Blandish._ I wish you joy, Miss Alton, of the most enviable situation a young person of elegant talents could be raised to. You and I will vie with each other, to prevent our dear countess ever knowing a melancholy hour. She has but one fault to correct--the giving way to the soft effusions of a too tender heart.

_Enter SERVANT._

_Serv._ Madam, a letter----

_Miss Als._ It's big enough for a state packet--Oh! mercy, a pet.i.tion--for Heaven's sake, Miss Alton, look it over. [_MISS ALTON reads._] I should as soon read one of Lady Newchapel's methodist sermons--What does it contain?

_Miss Alton._ Madam, an uncommon series of calamities, which prudence could neither see, nor prevent: the reverse of a whole family from affluence and content to misery and imprisonment; and it adds, that the parties have the honour, remotely, to be allied to you.

_Miss Als._ Remote relations! ay, they always think one's made of money.

_Enter another SERVANT._

_2 Serv._ A messenger, madam, from the animal repository, with the only puppy of the Peruvians, and the refusal at twenty guineas.

_Miss Als._ Twenty guineas! Were he to ask fifty, I must have him.

_Mrs. Blandish._ [_Offering to run out._] I vow I'll give him the first kiss.

_Miss Als._ [_Stopping her._] I'll swear you shan't.

_Miss Alton._ Madam, I was just finishing the pet.i.tion.

_Miss Als._ It's throwing money away--But give him a crown.

[_Exit with MRS. BLANDISH striving which shall be first._

_Miss Alton._ "The soft effusions of a too tender heart." The proof is excellent. That the covetous should be deaf to the miserable, I can conceive; but I should not have believed, if I had not seen, that a taste for profusion did not find its first indulgence in benevolence.

[_Exit._

ACT THE THIRD.

SCENE I.

_MISS ALSCRIP's Dressing-room._

_MISS ALTON, discovered._

_Miss Alton._ Thanks to Mrs. Blandish's inexhaustible talent for encomium, I shall be relieved from one part of a companion that my nature revolts at. But who comes here? It's well if I shall not be exposed to impertinences I was not aware of.

_Enter CHIGNON._

_Chignon._ [_Aside._] Ma foi, la voila--I will lose no time to pay my addresse--Now for de humble maniere, and de unperplex a.s.surance of my contree [_Bowing with a French shrug.--MISS ALTON turning over Music Books._] Mademoiselle, est-il permis? may I presume to offer you my profound homage [_MISS ALTON not taking Notice._] Mademoiselle--if you vill put your head into my hands, I vill give a distinction to your beauty, that shall make you and me de conversation of all de town.

_Miss Alton._ I request, Mr. Chignon, you will devote your ambition to your own part of the compliment.

_Mr. Als._ [_Without._] Where is my daughter?

_Miss Alton._ Is that Mr. Alscrip's voice, Mr. Chignon? It's awkward for me to meet him before I'm introduced.

_Chignon._ Keep a little behind, mademoiselle; he vill only pashe de room--He vill not see through me.

_Enter ALSCRIP._

_Alscrip._ Hah, my daughter gone already, but [_Sees CHIGNON._] there's a new specimen of foreign vermin--A lady's valet de chambre--Taste for ever!--Now if I was to give the charge of my person to a waiting maid, they'd say I was indelicate. [_As he crosses the Stage, CHIGNON keeps sideling to intercept his Sight, and bowing as he looks towards him._]

What the devil is mounseer at? I thought all his agility lay in his fingers: what antics is the monkey practising? He twists and doubles himself as if he had a raree-show at his back.

_Chignon._ [_Aside._] Be gar no raree-show for you, monsieur Alscrip, if I can help.

_Alscrip._ [_Spying MISS ALTON._] Ah! ah! What have we got there?

Monsieur, who is that?

_Chignon._ Sir, my lady wish to speak to you in her boudoir. She sent me to conduct you, sir.

_Alscrip._ [_Imitating._] Yes, sir, but I will first conduct myself to this lady--Tell me this minute, who she is?

_Chignon._ Sir, she come to live here, companion to my lady--Mademoiselle study some musique--she must not be disturbed.

_Alscrip._ Get about your business, monsieur, or I'll disturb every comb in your head--Go tell my daughter to stay till I come to her. I shall give her companion some cautions against saucy Frenchmen, sirrah!

_Chignon._ [_Aside._] Cautions! peste! you are subject a' cautions yourself--I suspecte you to be von old rake, but no ver dangerous rival.

[_Exit._

_Alscrip._ [_To himself, and looking at her with his Gla.s.s._] The devil is never tired of throwing baits in my way. [_She comes forward modestly._] By all that's delicious! I must be better acquainted with her. [_He bows. She courtesies, the Music Book still in her Hand._]

But how to begin--My usual way of attacking my daughter's maids will never do.

_Miss Alton._ [_Aside._] My situation is very embarra.s.sing.

_Alscrip._ Beauteous stranger, give me leave to add my welcome to my daughter's. Since Alscrip House was established, she never brought any thing into it to please me before.

_Miss Alton._ [_A little confused._] Sir, it is a great additional honour to that Miss Alscrip has done me, to be thought worthy so respectable a protection as yours.

_Alscrip._ I could furnish you with a better word than respectable.

It sounds so distant, and my feelings have so little to do with cold respect--I never had such a desire--to make myself agreeable.