_Adm._ Hah! Is it so, Agnes? In this instance I may safely join your hands for your mother, for this morning she expressed a wish that it might be so. At the same time, Mr and Mrs Bargrove, I must request your sanction for the choice that my son has made. He has already secured mine and that of Lady Etheridge.
_Mrs Bar._ (_wiping her eyes._) This is indeed a joyous end to all my vexations.
_Nelly_ (_with emotion._) May heaven bless your union, my dear Miss Lucy!
_Old Bar._ God bless you both! Now, with your permission, Sir Gilbert, I will resign my office of steward. For many years I have filled it through gratitude, and not from any wish of emolument. I have enough to portion my daughter, and even to make that foolish boy a gentleman, according to his notions of gentility.
_Peter._ Have you, my dear father? Then I am glad that I was not changed. But I say, Etheridge, I'm your brother-in-law. Indeed you've a strong hand, brother Edward.
_Capt. Eth._ There, Peter, take it in friendship. (_Shake hands._)
_Old Bar._ Well, I suppose, Peter, I must do the same, and forget and forgive.
_Mrs Bar._ And me, Peter. (_Peter jumps up, clasps her round the neck, and gives her a hearty kiss._) The boy's heart is right after all.
_Adm._ Thus, then, do all our vexations end in happiness, and may we be allowed to indulge the hope that the same may prove the case with all the parties (_bowing to the audience_) who have honoured us with their presence.
MR CADAVEROUS, _An old miser, very rich and very ill._
EDWARD, _A young lawyer without a brief._
THOMAS MONTAGU, } } _Nephews to Mr Cadaverous._ JOHN MONTAGU, }
JAMES STERLING, } } _Nephews twice removed to Mr Cadaverous._ WILLIAM STERLING,}
CLEMENTINA MONTAGU, _Niece to Mr Cadaverous._
_Scene.--A sick room.--Mr Cadaverous in an easy chair asleep, supported by cushions, wrapped up in his dressing-gown, a nightcap on his head.--A small table with phials, gallipots, &c.--Mrs Jellybags seated on a chair close to the table._
_Mrs Jellybags_ (_looks at Mr Cadaverous, and then comes forward_). He sleeps yet--the odious old miser! Mercy on me, how I do hate him,--almost as much as he loves his money! Well, there's one comfort, he cannot take his money-bags with him, and the doctor says that he cannot last much longer. Ten years have I been his slave--ten years have I been engaged to be married to Sergeant-Major O'Callaghan of the Blues--ten years has he kept me waiting at the porch of Hymen,--and what thousands of couples have I seen enter during the time! Oh dear! it's enough to drive a widow mad. I think I have managed it;--he has now quarrelled with all his relations, and Doctor Gumarabic intends this day to suggest the propriety of his making his last will and testament. [_Mr Cadaverous, still asleep, coughs._] He is waking. (_Looks at him._) No, he is not. Well, then, I shall wake him, and give him a draught, for, after such a comfortable sleep as he is now in, he might last a whole week longer. (_Goes up to Mr Cadaverous, and shakes him_).