2d Lady.  There, Madam, I must beg leave to set you right; my coachman—­

1st Lady.  I have it from the very best authority; my footma—­

2d Lady.  Then, Madam, you have set your servants on—­

1st Lady.  No, Madam, I would scorn any such little mean ways of coming at a secret.  For my part, I don’t think any secret of that consequence.

2d Lady.  That’s just like me; I make a rule of troubling my head with nobody’s business but my own.

Melesinda.  But then, she takes care to make everybody’s business her own, and so to justify herself that way—­
          
                                             (Aside.)

1st Lady.  My dear Melesinda, you look thoughtful.

Melesinda.  Nothing.

2d Lady.  Give it a name.

Melesinda.  Perhaps it is nameless.

1st Lady.  As the object—­Come, never blush, nor deny it, child.  Bless me, what great ugly thing is that, that dangles at your bosom?

Melesinda.  This?  It is a cross:  how do you like it?

2d Lady.  A cross!  Well, to me it looks for all the world like a great staring H. (Here a general laugh.)

Melesinda.  Malicious creatures!  Believe me it is a cross, and nothing but a cross.

1st Lady.  A cross, I believe, you would willingly hang at.

Melesinda.  Intolerable spite!

(MR. H. is announced.)

          Enter MR. H.

1st Lady.  O, Mr. H., we are so glad—­

2d Lady.  We have been so dull—­

3rd Lady.  So perfectly lifeless—­You owe it to us to be more than commonly entertaining.

Mr. H.  Ladies, this is so obliging—­

4th Lady.  O, Mr. H., those ranunculas you said were dying, pretty things, they have got up—­

5th Lady.  I have worked that sprig you commended—­I want you to come—­

Mr. H.  Ladies—­

6th Lady.  I have sent for that piece of music from London.

Mr. H.  The Mozart (seeing MELESINDA)—­Melesinda!

Several Ladies at once.  Nay, positively, Melesinda, you shan’t engross him all to yourself.

[While the ladies are pressing about MR. H., the gentlemen show signs of displeasure.

1st Gent.  We shan’t be able to edge in a word, now this coxcomb is come.

2d Gent.  Damn him, I will affront him.

1st Gent.  Sir, with your leave, I have a word to say to one of these ladies.

2d Gent.  If we could be heard—­

[The Ladies pay no attention but to MR. H.

Mr. H.  You see, gentlemen, how the matter stands. (Hums an air.) I am not my own master:  positively I exist and breathe but to be agreeable to these—­Did you speak?