Have you no person at present in your eye
with whom you could share your charms and your fortune?"
"O, sir, you are complimentary."
"Not at all, madam; speak to me candidly, as you perceive I do to you."
"Well, then," she replied, "there is a young gentleman with whom
I should wish to enter into a--a domestic--that is--a matrimonial
connection."
"Pray what age is he?"
"Indeed, he is but young, scarce nineteen; but then he is very wild, and
I--I--have--indeed I am of too kind a heart, sir. I have supplied his
extravagance--for so I must call it--poor boy--but cannot exactly
get him to accept a legitimate right over me--I fear he is attached
elsewhere--but you know he is young, sir, and. not come to his ripe
judgment yet. I read your handbill, sir; and if you could furnish me
with a--something--ahem--that might enable me to gain, or rather to
restore his affections--for I think he was fond of me some few months
ago--I would not grudge whatever the payment might be."
"You mean a philter?"
"I believe that is what it is called, sir."
"Well, madam, you shall be supplied with a philter that never fails, on
the payment ol twenty-one shillings.
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