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THE ALIENATED MANOR: A COMEDY.
231


SMITCHENSTAULT.

No! I only wish you not to be miserable.

CHARVILLE.

How can I be otherwise?

SMITCHENSTAULT.

I teach you. Do you consider now, and do you tink, and do you say to yourself, "Why be I unhappy? I have de bad wife. O very true; oder men have de bad wife also. Dey call me cocklum." What you call de man wid de (spreading out two of his fingers significantly)—ay, ay, cuckold. "Very well, oder men——"

CHARVILLE (starting from him).

I shall run distracted!

SMITCHENSTAULT.

Ay; all dis not be pleasant, but it be foolish dat you let it make you miserable. But if you cannot help dis, where is de obligation dat you should bear it? Keep a your place, dey say: foh, foh! de place where I am best is my place.

CHARVILLE.

If I could but leave them my misery as a legacy behind me!

SMITCHENSTAULT.

O you will leave dat to Sir Robert; he will get de bad wife to torment him.

CHARVILLE.

Marry! Devil choke them! I would live to