sure she has reason enough to be so. Solomon says
that "there is a time to laugh, and a time to weep."
Now, a time for a young woman to laugh is when she
has made sure of a good rich husband. Now, a time
to cry, according to you, Mary, is when she is making
choice of him; but I should think that a young
woman's time to cry was when she despaired of
getting one. Why, there was your mother, now: to be
sure, when I popp'd the question to her she did look
a little silly; but when she had once looked down on
her apron-strings, as all modest young women us'd to
do, and drawled out ye-s, she was as brisk and as
merry as a bee.


MARIA

My honoured mother, Sir, had no motive to mel-
ancholy; she married the man of her choice.


VAN ROUGH

The man of her choice! And pray, Mary, an't you
going to marry the man of your choice--what trum-
pery notion is this? It is these vile books [throwing
them away]. I'd have you to know, Mary, if you
won't make young Van Dumpling the man of your
choice, you shall marry him as the man of my choice.