has so much to do, in looking about, and finding out one's acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. Pray,—(most affectedly fixing his eyes upon a diamond-ring on his little finger) pray—what was the play to-night?"
"Why, what the D—l," cried the Captain, "do you come to the play, without knowing what it is?
"O yes, Sir, yes, very frequently; I have no time to read play-bills; one merely comes to meet one's friends; and shew that one's alive."
"Ha, ha, ha!—and so," cried the Captain, "it costs you five shillings a night, just to shew that you're alive! Well, faith, my friends should all think me dead and under ground, before I'd be at the expence for 'em. Howsomever, this here you may take from me;—they'll find you out fast enough, if you've any thing to give 'em. And so you've been here all this time, and don't know what the play was?"
"Why, really, Sir, a play requires so much attention,—it is scarcely possible to keep awake, if one listens;—for, indeed, by the time it is evening, one has been so fatigued, with dining,—or wine,—or the house,—or studying,—that it is—it is perfectly an impossibility. But, now I think of it, I believe I have a bill in my pocket;O, ay,
