LETITIA
Oh! my dear fanciful--
CHARLOTTE
Hush! I hear some person coming through the entry.
Enter SERVANT.
SERVANT.
Madam, there's a gentleman below who calls him-
self Colonel Manly; do you chuse to be at home?
CHARLOTTE
Shew him in. [Exit Servant.] Now for a sober
face.
Enter Colonel MANLY.
MANLY
My dear Charlotte, I am happy that I once more
enfold you within the arms of fraternal affection. I
know you are going to ask (amiable impatience!)
how our parents do,--the venerable pair transmit you
their blessing by me. They totter on the verge of a
well-spent life, and wish only to see their children
settled in the world, to depart in peace.
CHARLOTTE
I am very happy to hear that they are well. [Coolly.]
Brother, will you give me leave to introduce you to our
uncle's ward, one of my most intimate friends?
MANLY [saluting Letitia].
I ought to regard your friends as my own.
CHARLOTTE
Come, Letitia, do give us a little dash of your
vivacity; my brother is so sentimental and so grave,
that I protest he'll give us the vapours.
MANLY
Though sentiment and gravity, I know, are ban-
ished the polite world, yet I hoped they might find
some countenance in the meeting of such near con-
nections as brother and sister.
CHARLOTTE
Positively, brother, if you go one step further in this
strain, you will set me crying, and that, you know,
would spoil my eyes; and then I should never get the
husband which our good papa and mamma have so
kindly wished me--never be established in the world.
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