'
'And pray, sir, who is your love?'
'Celinda--Marionetta--either--both.'
'Both! That may do very well in a German tragedy; and the Great Mogul
might have found it very feasible in his lodgings at Kensington; but
it will not do in Lincolnshire. Will you have Miss Toobad?'
'Yes.'
'And renounce Marionetta?'
'No.'
'But you must renounce one.'
'I cannot.'
'And you cannot have both. What is to be done?'
'I must shoot myself.'
'Don't talk so, Scythrop. Be rational, my dear Scythrop. Consider, and
make a cool, calm choice, and I will exert myself in your behalf.'
'Why should I choose, sir? Both have renounced _me_: I have no hope of
either.'
'Tell me which you will have, and I will plead your cause
irresistibly.'
'Well, sir,--I will have--no, sir, I cannot renounce either. I
cannot choose either. I am doomed to be the victim of eternal
disappointments; and I have no resource but a pistol.'
'Scythrop--Scythrop;--if one of them should come to you--what then?'
'That, sir, might alter the case: but that cannot be.'
'It can be, Scythrop; it will be: I promise you it will be. Have but a
little patience--but a week's patience; and it shall be.'
'A week, sir, is an age: but, to oblige you, as a last act of
filial duty, I will live another week.
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