Mr. Crusty. How can you say so? Not a day has passed since the death of your heels-over-head husband, that I have not been at work to save you from the net- work of embarrassments in which he has involved all your property and his own.
Mrs. Lovely. Do n't, do n't! I can 't hear one word said to the disparagement of dear Henry. He was always a loving husband to me.
Mr. Crusty. Let me see that paper. [Reads the paper; lays it down with emotion] That lawyer is a nice nut for the devil to crack one of these days. My poor child ! there 's no saving you from rascality, but by marrying you myself.
Mrs. Lovely. You, you, my dear Mr. Crusty? Oh! you do n't mean what you say!
Mr. Crusty. I do, from the very bottom of my soul!
Mrs. Lovely. And are you indeed, indeed serious?
Mr. Crusty. Never more so in my life. You need a husband to take care of your affairs; I need a wife to take care of me. The exchange is most unequal on your part, to marry an old man like me. Ah ! I made a mistake twenty years ago, and I have been finding it out for ten years past ; but I feared it was too late to confess it to any lady, and I do now tell it to you, my lady.
Mrs. Lovely. Oh! it is great joy to me to hear it; to know it is now told to me by yourself. To me!
Mr. Crusty. You are an angel, and I shall clip your wings before you fly away. Now, then, will you marry me?
Mrs. Lovely. I will, six months hence; for, you know, I must have time to make all suitable preparations for such an event. I must first lay aside my weeds.
Mr. Crusty. Not an hour! In matters of this sort, especially, there 's danger in delay. Do n't you reflect that your "dear five hundred fashionable friends" will all do their best to put me out of your head. They will tell you, and tell you truly, I am too old for you. They will count every gray hair in my head, and tell you the exact number.
Mrs. Lovely. If all the world were to unite, it would not move me. No, never!
