_Lady._ Rather, sir, we should ask of you what happened in your travels?
_Flor._ Oh, nothing so shocking!--no man can be the herald of his own praise.
_Lady._ Yes, sir,--but I wish to know how you like the Chapel of Loretto, the Venus de Medicis of Florence, the Vatican at Rome, and all the numberless curiosities peculiar to the countries you have travelled through?
_Lord._ Look ye--I'll answer for it, he knows nothing of the gentlemen you mention--do you, my sweet pretty?--Oh! you damned puppy!
_Lord._ Swear, my lord! Zounds! it's my prerogative, and, by----tell me how you spent your time, sir?
_Flor._ Why, in contemplating living angels, not dead antiquities;--in basking in the rays of beauty, not mouldering in the dust of ancestry;--in mirth, festivity, and pleasure; not study, pedantry, and retirement.--Oh, I have lived, sir! lived for myself, not an ungrateful world, who, should I die a martyr to their cause, would only laugh and wonder at my folly.
_Lady._ You seem to know the world, Mr Floriville.
_Flor._ No, ma'am, I know little of mankind, and less of myself,--I have no pilot, but my pleasures;--no mistress, but my passions;--and I don't believe, if it was to save my life, I could reason consequentially for a minute together.
_Lord._ Granted:--you have seen every thing worth seeing, yet know nothing worth knowing;--and now you have just knowledge enough to prove yourself a fool on every subject.
_Flor._ Vastly well, my lord--upon my word, you improve with your title, but I am perfectly satisfied, believe me--for what I don't know, I take for granted is not worth knowing--therefore we'll call another topic.--I'm in love, my lord.
_Flor._ With one that will please you very much--at least, ought to please you--you'll be in raptures, dear uncle.
_Lord._ Raptures! and you shall be in agonies, my dear nephew.
_Flor._ You have known one another a long while, yet you hav'n't met for years--you have loved one another a long while, yet you quarrelled not an hour ago--you have differed from one another all your lives, yet you are likely to be friends as long as you live--and, above all, the person is now in the house.
_Lord._ In this house! let me know who it is this moment, or by the blood of the Scratches----