2. Lady.—­You surprise me!

3. Lady.—­I am very glad to hear it, for her sake.

1. Lady.—­I can assure you, Madam, she had refused him, and that he knows well enough, which has been one of the reasons that has made him abuse her as he has done.

2. Lady.—­Indeed, she has been used very ill by him, or somebody for him.

1. Lady.—­Yes, he has reported strange things, but they are all lies.

2. Lady.—­Well; but pray, Madam, what was the reason, if we may be so free, that she turned him off after she had entertained him so long?

1. Lady.—­Oh, Madam! reason enough; I wonder he should pretend, when he knew his own circumstances too, to court a lady of her fortune.

2. Lady.—­Why, are not his circumstances good, then?

1. Lady.—­No, Madam.  Good! alas, he has no bottom.

2. Lady.—­No bottom!  Why, you surprise me; we always looked upon him to be a man of substance, and that he was very well in the world.

1. Lady.—­It is all a cheat, Madam; there’s nothing in it; when it came to be made out, nothing at all in it.

2. Lady.—­That cannot be, Madam; Mr ——­ has lived always in good reputation and good credit in his business.

1. Lady.—­It is all sunk again then, if it was so; I don’t know.

2. Lady.—­Why did she entertain him so long, then?

1. Lady.—­Alas!  Madam, how could she know, poor lady, till her friends inquired into things?  But when they came to look a little narrowly into it, they soon found reason to give her a caution, that he was not the man she took him for.

2. Lady.—­Well, it is very strange; I am sure he passed for another man among us.

1. Lady.—­It must be formerly, then, for they tell me his credit has been sunk these three or four years; he had need enough indeed to try for a greater fortune, he wants it enough.

2. Lady.—­It is a sad thing when men look out for fortunes to heal their trade-breaches with, and make the poor wife patch up their old bankrupt credit.

1. Lady.—­Especially, Madam, when they know themselves to be gone so far, that even with the addition they can stand but a little while, and must inevitably bring the lady to destruction with them.

2. Lady.—­Well, I could never have thought Mr ——­ was in such circumstances.

3. Lady.—­Nor I; we always took him for a ten thousand pound man.

1. Lady.—­They say he was deep in the bubbles, Madam.

2. Lady.—­Nay, if he was gotten into the South Sea, that might hurt him indeed, as it has done many a gentleman of better estates than he.

1. Lady.—­I don’t know whether it was the South Sea, or some other bubbles, but he was very near making a bubble of her, and L3000 into the bargain.