determine you at once to either party. If you thus continue waverings you will lose both; for, as says the old adage, 'He who sits between two stools falls to the ground.'"
Ever ready to submit his judgment to that of Melliphant, ensnared by his specious reasoning, and becoming the complete dupe of his artifices, Sir Howard no longer hesitated as to the step he should adopt, and went immediately, as we have seen, to call upon the De Brookes, in order to promote the introduction in question.
Always happy of an excuse for not attending public amusements, the General, pleading a prior engagement with Dr. Lovesworth, gladly submitted his wife and daughter to the care of his supposed friend, Sir Howard, when he called in the evening to conduct them to the play.
Upon entering the box of the theatre, taken in his name, and finding Mrs. Belmour and Melliphant already there, the introduction of the ladies took place.
Mrs. Belmour seemed turned of forty; to an air somewhat matronly, she added a kind and gracious deportment. If not of brilliant parts, her great knowledge of life, and habits of company supplied the deficiency; with these acquirements, possessing some share of tolerable plain sense, she certainly had the art of rendering herself agreeable.
The scenes exhibited that evening were more correct and moral than is usual to the modern drama.
