Eger.  Perfectly well, sir.

Sir Per.  Ay, but was it not right? was it not ingenious, and weel hit off?

Eger.  Certainly, sir:  extremely well.

Sir Per.  My next bow, sir, was till your ain mother, whom I ran away with fra the boarding school; by the interest of whose family I got a guid smart place in the Treasury:—­and, sir, my vary next step was intill Parliament; the which I entered with as ardent and as determined an ambition as ever agitated the heart of Caesar himself.  Sir, I bowed, and watched, and hearkened, and ran about, backwards and forwards; and attended, and dangled upon the then great man, till I got intill the vary bowels of his confidence,—­and then, sir, I wriggled, and wrought, and wriggled, till I wriggled myself among the very thick of them:  hah!  I got my snack of the clothing, the foraging, the contracts, the lottery tickets—­and aw the political bonusses;—­till at length, sir, I became a much wealthier man than one half of the golden calves I had been so long a bowing to:  [He rises, and Eger. rises too.]—­and was nai that bowing to some purpose?

Eger.  It was indeed, sir.

Sir Per.  But are you convinced of the guid effects, and of the utility of bowing?

Eger.  Thoroughly, sir.

Sir Per.  Sir, it is infallible:—­but, Charles, ah! while I was thus bowing, and wriggling, and raising this princely fortune,—­ah!  I met with many heart-sores and disappointments fra the want of literature, eloquence, and other popular abeleties.  Sir, guin I could but have spoken in the house, I should have done the deed in half the time; but the instant I opened my mouth there, they aw fell a laughing at me;—­aw which deficiencies, sir, I determined, at any expence, to have supplied by the polished education of a son, who, I hoped, would one day raise the house of Macsycophant till the highest pitch of ministerial ambition.  This, sir, is my plan:  I have done my part of it; Nature has done hers:  you are popular, you are eloquent; aw parties like and respect you; and now, sir, it only remains for you to be directed—­completion follows.

Eger.  Your liberality, sir, in my education, and the judicious choice you made of the worthy gentleman, to whose virtue and abilities you entrusted me, are obligations I shall ever remember with the deepest filial gratitude.

Sir Per.  Vary weel, sir:  but, Charles, have you had any conversation yet with Lady Rodolpha, about the day of your marriage—­your liveries—­your equipage—­or your domestic establishment?

Eger.  Not yet, sir.

Sir Per.  Poh! why there again now you are wrong—­vary wrong.

Eger.  Sir, we have not had an opportunity.

Sir Per.  Why, Charles, you are vary tardy in this business.

Lord Lum. [Sings without, flusht with wine.] ‘What have we with day to do?’