Beyond the Count: The Literary Vampire of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bathory Gate Press
Published: 2014-05-29T03:00:00+00:00

Scene II.—An Apartment in Aldwinkle Hall (2nd grooves.)

Enter Georgiana and Lavinia, R.

Lavin. (c.) If you ask my advice, my dear Georgiana, I must candidly express my opinion, that, as you wish to marry Captain Vauntington, who has no money; and Mr. Nicodemus, who has plenty, wishes to marry you; you having plenty, ought to take pity on the Captain’s poverty, and leave me, who have nothing, to make love, if I like, to Mr. Nicodemus’s abundance. It’s quite enough for one party to be rich in marriage.

Georg. (l.) What you say, coz, is, as it always is, full of excellent sense; the only question is, how is it to be accomplished? You know my father’s obstinacy; his engagement with Mr. Nicodemus; and—eh, here comes my father, and my dear Captain Vauntington too, as I live; they are discussing a subject too interesting to my feelings to permit my being an auditor. Let us retire, my dear cousin, and await, in hope, the end of their conference.

Exeunt Georgiana and Lavinia, r.

Enter Aldwinkle and Vauntington, l.

Aldwink. (c.) ’Tis no use talking, Mr. Vauntington—if you are a captain, you are only a South American captain; they spring up like mushrooms, now o’days, and, agad,[86] are worth about as much.

Vaunt. (l.) But, my dear sir, my family———

Aldwink. Ah! there’s the thing—if you get a family, how the devil are you to support them! Besides, I’ve solemnly engaged my daughter to Mr. Nicodemus; he has it under my hand and seal—sent it him, by post, above a month ago. To be sure, I’ve never seen the gentleman; but his character is unexceptionable.

Vaunt. It is not too late to retract, sir.

Aldwink. Indeed, but it is, sir; for I expect him to arrive every moment. He sent me word he was coming express, though there was no occasion for that; I knew it, for, independently of an amazing bright letter in the candle last night, that pointed directly towards me, my man Dickory saw a stranger on the bars this morning; that, immediately he clapped his hands, flew into the fire—a sure sign he was a good friend.

Vaunt. Ridiculous, childish superstition!

Aldwink. So you may think; but I’m of a different opinion. You’re one of those heedless fellows, now, who’d walk twenty times under a ladder and never once look behind you; and, if you were to see fifty piebald horses, would’nt pull a hair out of the tail of any of them, though you might get any thing you choose to wish for, for your pains.

Vaunt. But allow me to say, sir, that my passion for your daughter——

Aldwink. Zounds, sir, you’ll put me in a passion, if you go on in this way. Hav’nt I sent Dickory off to meet Mr. Nicodemus, at the half-way-house,—where he wrote me word, he should stop and dine,—on purpose to conduct him here all the sooner. I wonder they haven’t arrived, for it’s getting rather late.

Vaunt. But early impressions,—first love, sir———

Aldwink. Second thoughts are best—hey, surely, I hear the sound of visitors without.

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