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The Female Gamester - A Tragedy by Gorges Edmond Howard
page 42 of 110 (38%)
Unlock each chest, and lay its stores before you.

Mrs. ANDREWS. Stop! at your peril stop! the very thought
Chills my whole blood--I'd perish first in want.

MARIA. Then you must quit your honourable friends,
And live for ever in forlorn obscurity.
But pardon me, if I've been too officious.

Mrs. ANDREWS. My present calls require at least a thousand:
For though my fund be not quite exhausted,
Fortune hath made me bankrupt yet to numbers.
'Tis true, that many are far more my debtors,
Yet are not all like me in payment punctual.
But I will instant haste to lady Belmour,
My faithful counsel in the time of trouble.

MARIA. As I could wish.

Mrs. ANDREWS. Then for awhile withdraw. [MARIA goes off.]
How dreadful now, is ev'n a moment's privacy!
How different from those happy hours of innocence,
When my sweet little ones were prattling round me,
With a fond husband and a tender father,
Pouring his blessings upon them and me!
But now I can no more endure to see them,
Than I can bear to look into myself.
How often hath he said, "One hour's remorse
Outweighs whole years of transitory joys!"
How true he spoke! but wherefore these reflections?
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