JOHN.--Will you take anything before the school-room tea, ma'am? You
will stop to tea, I hope, with Miss Prior, and our young folks?

MRS. PRIOR.--Thank you: a little glass of wine when one is so faint--a
little crumb of biscuit when one is so old and tired! I have not been
accustomed to want, you know; and in my poor dear Mr. Prior's time--

JOHN.--I'll fetch some wine, ma'am. [Exit to the dining-room.]

MRS. PRIOR.--Bless the man, how abrupt he is in his manner! He quite
shocks a poor lady who has been used to better days. What's here?
Invitations--ho! Bills for Lady Kicklebury! THEY are not paid. Where is
Mr. M. going to dine, I wonder? Captain and Mrs. Hopkinson, Sir John and
Lady Tomkinson, request the pleasure. Request the pleasure! Of course
they do. They are always asking Mr. M. to dinner. They have daughters
to marry, and Mr. M. is a widower with three thousand a year, every
shilling of it. I must tell Lady Kicklebury. He must never go to these
places--never, never--mustn't be allowed. [While talking, she opens all
the letters on the table, rummages the portfolio and writing-box, looks
at cards on mantelpiece, work in work-basket, tries tea-box, and shows
the greatest activity and curiosity.]

Re-enter John, bearing a tray with cakes, a decanter, &c.

Thank you, thank you, Mr. Howell! Oh, oh, dear me, not so much as that!
Half a glass, and ONE biscuit, please. What elegant sherry! [sips a
little, and puts down glass on tray]. Do you know, I remember in better
days, Mr. Howell, when my poor dear husband--