The Politician Out-Witted Part 19

HARRIET. I have a.s.sured you that _my_ esteem is at least equalled by a more pa.s.sionate affection:--but how strangely you talk!--First you acknowledge yourself unworthy of my favour;--then you are alarmed that I should only esteem you; and when I talk of a pa.s.sion, superior to mere _Platonic_ love, you are afraid, on the other hand, it is a blind, enthusiastic impulse, not founded on _esteem_.--How inconsistent are lovers!

LOVEYET. Your reasoning, like your person, surprises, charms and subdues:--I will be more consistent;--but our contention is only for pre-eminence in love;--delightful emulation! Agreeable inconsistency!

HARRIET. I am now ashamed of my childish suspicions; but I should not have been so credulous, had it not been for an affection, which rendered my better judgment blind to the fallacy, and made me more apprehensive of your inconstancy, than satisfied of your innocence; and this disposed me to misinterpret every thing you said.

LOVEYET. And your apparent indifference, in consequence of that misinterpretation, excited similar suspicions in me; and thus, mutual distrust produced mutual misapprehension.

HARRIET. But you have not told me the particulars of your interview with old Mr. Loveyet.

LOVEYET. Were you to hear those particulars, they would only afford you pain;--'tis sufficient for me to tell you, he has turned me out of his house, only because I told him, I was a friend to the new Const.i.tution, forsooth.

HARRIET. He is a strange character:--when I call'd on my father, I was alarmed to find them at high words;--and he abus'd _me_ most unmercifully.

LOVEYET. He did? 'Tis well for him he has call'd himself my father;--but if my Harriet consents, I will immediately put myself in a situation that will justify my preventing his future ill usage:--Fortune has enabled me to act independent either of his frown or his favour;--I have taken such measures, in consequence of his base usage, as will guard us against the effects of the one, without obliging us to cringe for the other.

HARRIET. I am happy to hear it; but affluence is not my object, nor poverty my dread; and I am happy I can convince you how little I desire an alliance for interest, by now tendering you the whole of my trifling fortune, in case your father should deprive you of yours.

LOVEYET. Charming Harriet! Miracle of disinterested love! Thus let me evince my grat.i.tude.

[_Kneels, and kisses her hand._

HARRIET. Pray do not worship me, Mr. Loveyet; I am less generous than you imagine;--self-love is at the bottom of this n.o.ble declaration; for if I did not suppose you capable of making me happier than any other man, I would keep both my fortune and my person, to myself.

LOVEYET. Better and better!--Your explanation gives me new reason to adore such uncommon worth, and makes me blest beyond measure! By heaven, New-York does not contain such a fortunate fellow!

_Enter FRANKTON._

HARRIET. [_Seeing FRANKTON._]--Ha, ha. You could not say more, if you were addressing my friend Maria.

LOVEYET. Talk not of your friend Maria,--

HARRIET. You talked enough of her perfections just now, for both of us.

FRANKTON. He did, eigh? [_Aside._

LOVEYET. I spoke of her as I thought she deserv'd; she is a lovely creature, but--but [_Sees FRANKTON._]--Frankton!

FRANKTON. I hope Miss Trueman will excuse my coming in so abruptly:--I have been looking for Mr. Loveyet, all over the city; at last I concluded, I might find him here.

HARRIET. Really sir; and pray, what made you conclude so?

FRANKTON. I thought it was within the compa.s.s of probability, madam.

LOVEYET. Perhaps it was the lady you wanted to see so much, Frankton;--that _she_ might be here, was certainly within the compa.s.s of probability.

FRANKTON. Had I then known what I have discovered since, I should have looked for you at some place not very distant from the lady, whose perfections you have been contemplating with so much admiration; for by Miss Harriet's account, you have seen her, perhaps, more than once.

LOVEYET. I saw her yesterday, and was charmed with her beauty.--Whenever I am betrayed into one falsehood, I am obliged to support it with twenty more. [_Aside._

HARRIET. It is really so, sir;--he was enraptured with her idea just now.--I fear your friend is your rival, sir.

LOVEYET. And I fear my friend is my rival, madam.

HARRIET. Nay, what cause have you for _such_ a fear?

LOVEYET. About as good as you have, my dear.--I am glad you came in when you did, Frankton; for you must know, we have had certain mutual doubts and jealousies; in consequence of which, a little ill-natured altercation, otherwise called love, ensued: a small foretaste of conjugal felicity; but the short-liv'd storm soon subsided, and a reconciliation made all calm again.

FRANKTON. I have something to say to you in private, Loveyet. [_Aside to LOVEYET._]--I am sorry to deprive you of Mr. Loveyet's company, madam; but I trust you will excuse me, when I tell you I have particular business with him.

HARRIET. By all means, sir.

FRANKTON. Your most obedient, madam.

LOVEYET. [_Goes up to HARRIET._]--Adieu;--expect me soon, and be a.s.sured of my unalterable fidelity.

[_Exit with FRANKTON._

HARRIET. Farewell.--I wish he had look'd for you a little farther, before he had taken you away.--There are so many captivating objects in the city (as he has already seen and declared), and dissipation abounds so much among us, that who knows, if he is now sincere, how long he will remain so;--and how long after marriage:--"Ah, there's the rub."--Well, matrimony will put his constancy to the test, that's one comfort;--it is a hazardous expedient, but it is a certain one.

SCENE III. _A Street._

_Enter FRANKTON and YOUNG LOVEYET._

LOVEYET. He denounces perpetual enmity against me; threatens me with beggary, and (what is worse) resolves to prevent my union with Harriet, and thus blast all my hopes; but I shall take care to disappoint his views;--I have just sent the most valuable part of my property to--

FRANKTON. Hah! There goes Miss Airy, I believe:--pray excuse me, Charles; perhaps she has observed me. You have eased my mind of its doubts, and your resolution has made your friend happy.--Adieu.

[_Exit in haste._

LOVEYET [_manet_].

A plague take your hurry, I say:--In the very moment of my telling him about sending the money to his house, he must conceit he saw Miss Airy;--but he has not received it yet, or he would have told me.--I hope Humphry has made no mistake;--I must see about it immediately.

[_Exit._

SCENE IV. _The Street before MARIA'S House._

_Enter HUMPHRY and NEGRO with a trunk._

HUMPHRY. This here is the house, I warrant you;--these crooked figures is enough for to puzzle a lawyer.--He said number two hundred and twenty-one:--two two's and a one stands for that, and there it is.

[_Knocks,--SERVANT comes out._] Does one Mr. Frankton live here, pray?

SERVANT. No;--he is here pretty often though, and I expect he will live here altogether, by and by.

HUMPHRY. Aye, I suppose he's only a lodger;--yes, this must be the place.