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THE STRIPLING: A TRAGEDY.


SKRIEVER.

Yes, Sir, and you will find the security good, and the interest of your money regularly paid.

ROBINAIR.

I trust so; for otherwise I shall foreclose upon you without hesitation. Go into my library, and I'll sign it there.

[Exit Skriever by a side door.
(To Bruton, after going about the room fantastically, with a gay, skipping step.) The breezes of fortune, you see, are in my sails.

BRUTON.

But you may be wrecked full soon, notwithstanding.

ROBINAIR.

Never fear: I am a skilful pilot as well as a bold sailor, and when I am——O what may I not be!—I will make a man of thee, Bruton.

BRUTON.

Could you restore me to the man I was, when you first took me up, I should ask no better fortune, and take my leave of you for ever.

ROBINAIR.

What! leave me? No, no! I must not part with that sober face, and seeming sanctity of thine: they will be necessary to keep me in credit with the world. "Hold your tongue," will the faded maids and dowagers exclaim, as