_Eger_. [_Greatly embarrassed._] Madam, I beg your pardon. [_Hands her a chair, then one for himself._] Please to sit, madam. [_They sit down with great ceremony: she sits down first. He sits at a distance from her. They are silent for some time. He coughs, hems, and adjusts himself. She mimicks him._]
_Lady Rod_. [_Aside._] Aha! he's resolved not to come too near till me, I think.
_Eger_. [_Aside._] A pleasant interview, this--hem, hem!
_Lady Rod_. [_Aside, mimicks him to herself._] Hem! he will not open the congress, I see.--Then I will.--[_very loud._] _Come, sir_, when will you begin?
_Eger_. [_Greatly surprised._] Begin! what, madam?
_Lady Rod_. Ay, love, sir.--Why, you have never said a word till me on the subject,--nor cast a single glance at me,--nor heaved one tender sigh,--nor even secretly squeezed my loof:--now, sir, thof our fathers are so tyrannical as to dispose of us without the consent of our hearts;--yet you, sir, I hope, have more humanity than to think of marrying me without administering some of the preliminaries, usual on those occasions:--if not till my understanding and sentiments, yet till the vanity of my sex, at least, I hope you will pay some little tribute of ceremony and adulation: that, I think, I have a right to expect.
_Eger_. Madam, I own your reproach is just:--I shall therefore no longer disguise my sentiments, but fairly let you know my heart.
_Lady Rod_. [_Starts up, and runs to him._] That's right,--that is right, cousin;--honourably and affectionately right;--that is what I like of aw things in my swain.--Ay, ay, cousin--open your mind frankly till me, as a true lover shou'd.--But sit you down--sit you down again: I shall return your frankness and your passion, cousin, with a melting tenderness, equal till the amorous enthusiasm of an ancient heroine.
_Lady Rod_. But, remember, you must begin with fervency,--and a most rapturous vehemency:--for you are to consider, cousin, that our match is nai to arise fra the union of hearts, and a long decorum of ceremonious courtship;--but is instantly to start at once--out of necessity, or mere accident;--ha, ha, ha! like a match in an ancient romance,--where you ken, cousin,--the knight and the damsel are mutually smitten and dying for each other at first sight,--or by an amorous sympathy before they exchange a single glance.