Mr. Knickerbocker, my dear, if you please.
Well, then, Mr. Knickerbocker, my dear, if you please, we have been looking out at the window to ascertain who came and went, and have discovered a fine, handsome fellow galloping towards the town, and I shouldn't at all wonder if it wasn't--
[_Hurries to him._] My dear, dear Gustaffe!
[_Embracing her._] My tender, charming Lorrenna!
Why, Gustaffe! Bless us! why, how the spark has grown.
Spouse! Mr. Knickerbocker, if you please. Truly, wife, we have both increased somewhat in corporal, as well as temporal substance, since Gustaffe went to sea. But you know, Alice--
Why, Knickerbocker, you have thriven well of late.
I belong to the corporation, and we must support our corporation as well as it. But not a word about the pig, as the butchers have it, when you were a little boy, and Alice courting me.
Sirrah! Mr. Knickerbocker, if you please. Why, then, deary--we didn't like anyone to intrude on our society; do you take the hint? as the gamblers have it. Come along, Alice--Mrs. Knickerbocker, I would say--let us leave the lovers to themselves.
Again they meet, and sweet's the love that meets return.
_Exeunt_ KNICKERBOCKER _and_ ALICE, _singing in concert_, "Again they meet."
My dear Lorrenna, why this dejected look?--It is your own Gustaffe enfolds you in his arms.
Alas! I am no longer worthy of your love,--your friendship. A fatal bond extracted from my lamented father has severed us forever--I am devoid of fortune.
Lorrenna, you have been the star that has guided my bark,--thee, my compass--my north pole,--and when the magnet refuses its aid to the seaman, then will he believe that you have foundered in affection, or think that I would prove faithless from the loss of earthly pittance.
Shoals,--to speak in your nautical language--have long, on every side, surrounded me; but, by my kind uncle's advice, must we be guided. [_Exit._
Enter NICHOLAS VEDDER and DAME VEDDER (_formerly_ DAME VAN WINKLE).
DAME. 'Tis very hard for the poor girl. VEDDER. Yes; but 'tis your fault. You shouldn't have had a fool and a sot for your first husband. DAME. [_Aside._] And I didn't ought to have had a bear for my second. VEDDER. What did you say? DAME. Nothing--nothing. VEDDER. Well, don't say it again. Because Lowena will have to be the wife of Herman Van Slaus, that's settled! DAME. But he's a most disreputable man, and my poor child detests him. VEDDER. Well, she won't be the first wife that has detested her husband. DAME. No; I should think not, indeed. VEDDER. You should think not! What do you mean by that? DAME. Nothing! VEDDER. Well, don't mean it again. What, do you suppose that I'll suffer my daughter-in-law to sacrifice her fortune--a fortune of which we shall have our share?--Herman has promised that. DAME. Herman will promise anything; and you know that my poor girl is doatingly fond of young Gustaffe. VEDDER. Well, I can't help that; but I am not going to allow her to make a beggar of herself and us too, for any nonsense about the man of her heart. DAME. Hers will break if she is compelled to-- VEDDER. Nonsense--a woman's heart is about the toughest object in creation. DAME. You have given me plenty of proof that you think so. VEDDER. What do you intend to imply by that? DAME. Nothing! VEDDER. Well, don't imply it again--don't, because--