COLONEL FRANKLAND (who has been listening behind backs).
And who says she has got rid of her fortune?
CLERMONT.
I beg pardon, Colonel Frankland, for alluding to such matters; but you have now found an heir in your own descendant, and it is natural that it should be so.
COLONEL FRANKLAND.
And I'll wager a crown, now, you both wish to have it so, that you may make a romantic match of it, and live on that bare estate on the mountains of Cumberland. But I hate romance; and unless you make up your mind to have her with the half of my moveable property as her dowry, you sha'n't have her at all.
CLERMONT.
My dear Sir, the boy is your grandchild.
COLONEL FRANKLAND.
And if he were so ten times over, shall I ever suffer a little imp like him to be dearer to me than this generous girl? (Putting their hands together.) Now, keep ye good friends, and quarrel no more. And—but a truce to good advice at present; for here are our two bubbles of vanity returned again, inflated still with air enough to keep them buoyant on the
