Oh! the sentimental charms
of a side-box conversation! [All laugh.]
MANLY
Well, sister, I join heartily with you in the laugh;
for, in my opinion, it is as justifiable to laugh at folly
as it is reprehensible to ridicule misfortune.
CHARLOTTE
Well, but, brother, positively I can't introduce you
in these clothes: why, your coat looks as if it were
calculated for the vulgar purpose of keeping yourself
comfortable.
MANLY
This coat was my regimental coat in the late war.
The public tumults of our state have induced me to
buckle on the sword in support of that government
which I once fought to establish. I can only say,
sister, that there was a time when this coat was re-
spectable, and some people even thought that those
men who had endured so many winter campaigns in
the service of their country, without bread, clothing,
or pay, at least deserved that the poverty of their
appearance should not be ridiculed.
CHARLOTTE
We agree in opinion entirely, brother, though it
would not have done for me to have said it: it is the
coat makes the man respectable. In the time of the
war, when we were almost frightened to death, why,
your coat was respectable, that is, fashionable; now
another kind of coat is fashionable, that is, respectable.
And pray direct the taylor to make yours the height
of the fashion.
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