Eger.  O! madam, they are mere temporary baubles, especially in courtship; and no more to be depended upon than the weather, or a lottery ticket.

Lady Rod, Ha, ha, ha! twa excellent similes, I vow, Mr. Egerton.—­ Excellent! for they illustrate the vagaries and inconstancy of my dissipated heart as exactly as if you had meant to describe it.
    [Exit with Eger.

Sir Per.  Ha, ha, ha! what a vast fund of spirits and guid humour she has, Maister Sidney.

Sid.  A great fund indeed, Sir Pertinax.

Sir Per.  Come, let us till dinner.—­Hah! by this time to-morrow, Maister Sidney, I hope we shall have every thing ready for you to put the last hand till the happiness of your friend and pupil;—­and then, sir—­my cares will be over for this life:—­for as to my other son, I expect nai guid of him, nor shou’d I grieve, were I to see him in his coffin.—­But this match,—­O! it will make me the happiest of aw human beings. [Exeunt.

END OF THE SECOND ACT.

ACT III.  SCENE I.

    Enter Sir PERTINAX and EGERTON.

Sir Per. [In warm resentment.] Zoons! sir, I wull not hear a word about it:—­I insist upon it you are wrong:—­you shou’d have paid your court till my lord, and not have scrupled swallowing a bumper or twa, or twenty, till oblige him.

Eger.  Sir, I did drink his toast in a bumper.

Sir Per.  Yes—­you did;—­but how? how?—­just as a bairn takes physic—­ with aversions and wry faces, which my lord observed:  then, to mend the matter, the moment that he and the colonel got intill a drunken dispute about religion, you slily slunged away.

Eger.  I thought, sir, it was time to go, when my lord insisted upon half pint bumpers.

Sir Per.  Sir, that was not levelled at you, but at the colonel, in order to try his bottom; but they aw agreed that you and I should drink out of smaw glasses.

Eger.  But, sir, I beg pardon:—­I did not choose to drink any more.

Sir Per.  But zoons! sir, I tell you there was a necessity for your drinking more.

Eger.  A necessity! in what respect, pray, sir?

Sir Per.  Why, sir, I have a certain point to carry, independent of the lawyers, with my lord, in this agreement of your marriage—­about which I am afraid we shall have a warm squabble—­and therefore I wanted your assistance in it.

Eger.  But how, sir, could my drinking contribute to assist you in your squabble?

Sir Per.  Yes, sir, it would have contributed—­and greatly have contributed to assist me.

Eger.  How so, sir?

Sir Per.  Nay, sir, it might have prevented the squabble entirely; for as my lord is proud of you for a son-in-law, and is fond of your little French songs, your stories, and your bon-mots, when you are in the humour,—­and guin you had but staid—­and been a little jolly—­and drank half a score bumpers with him, till he got a little tipsy—­I am sure, when we had him in that mood, we might have settled the point as I could wish it, among ourselves, before the lawyers came:  but now, sir, I do not ken what will be the consequence.