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10

People have taken it into their heads! blind idiots! I could kick my own shins if I thought they had the smallest resemblance to his.

Mrs. B. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Balt. And this is matter of amusement for you, Ma'am? I abhor laughing?

Mrs. B. Pray, pray forgive me! This is both ludicrous and distressing. I knew that you disliked this man from the first day he settled in your neighbourhood, and that, during two years acquaintance, your aversion has been daily encreasing; but I had no idea of the extravagant height to which it has now arrived.

Balt. Would I had sold every foot of my lands, and settled in the lone wilds of America, 'ere this man came, to be the swoln possessor of my fore-fathers lands; their last remaining son, now cramp'd and elbow'd round, in one small corner of their once wide and extensive domains! Oh! I shall never forget what I felt, when, with that familiar and disgusting affability, he first held out to me his damned palm, and hail'd me as a neighbour, (striding up and down the stage.) Ay, by my soul, he pretends to be affable!

Mrs. B. You feel those things too keenly.

Balt. A stock or a stone would feel it. He has opposed me in every contest, from the election of a member of parliament down to the chasing of a parish clerk; and yet, damn him! he will never give me a fair occasion of quarrelling with him, for then I should be happier. (striding up and down