bring it in manslaughter, what are they the worse for it? So, my dear, have done upon this subject. Was Captain Macheath here this morning for the banknotes he left with you last week?

Mrs. Peach. Yes, my dear; and, though the bank hath stopped payment, he was so cheerful and so agreeable. Sure there is not a finer gentleman upon the road than the Captain! If he comes from Bagshot at any reasonable hour, he hath promised to make one this evening with Polly and me and Bob Booty at a party of quadrille. Pray, my dear, is the Captain rich?

Peach. The Captain keeps too good company ever to grow rich. Marylebone and the chocolate-houses are his undoing. The man that proposes to get money by play should have the education of a fine gentleman, and be trained up to it from his youth.

Mrs. Peach. Really I am sorry, upon Polly’s account, the Captain hath not more discretion. What business hath he to keep company with lords and gentlemen? He should leave them to prey upon one another.

Peach. Upon Polly’s account! What a plague does the woman mean? Upon Polly’s account!

Mrs. Peach. Captain Macheath is very fond of the girl.

Peach. And what then?

Mrs. Peach. If I have any skill in the ways of women, I am sure Polly thinks him a very pretty man.

Peach. And what then? You would not be so mad to have the wench marry him? Gamesters and highwaymen are generally very good to their whores, but they are very devils to their wives.

Mrs. Peach. But if Polly should be in love, how should we help her, or how can she help herself? Poor girl! I am in the utmost concern about her.

Air.—Why is your faithful slave disdained?

Peach. Look ye, wife, a handsome wench in our way of business is as profitable as at the bar of a Temple coffee-house, who looks upon it as her livelihood to grant every liberty but one. You see I would indulge the girl as far as prudently we can. In anything but marriage. After that, my dear, how shall we be safe? Are we not then in her husband’s power? For a husband hath the absolute power over all a wife’s secrets but her own. If the girl had the discretion of a court lady, who can have a dozen young fellows at her ear, without complying with one, I should not matter it; but Polly is tinder, and a spark will at once set her on a flame. Married! If the wench does not know her own profit, sure she knows her own pleasure better than to make herself a property! My daughter, to me, should be like a court lady to a minister of state —a key to the whole gang. Married! If the affair is not already done, I’ll terrify her from it by the example of our neighbours.

Mrs. Peach. Mayhap, my dear, you may injure the girl. She loves to imitate the fine ladies, and she may only allow the Captain liberties in the view of interest.

Peach. But ’tis your duty, my dear, to warn the girl against her ruin, and to instruct her how to make the most of her beauty. I’ll go to her this moment and sift her. In the meantime, wife, rip out the coronets and marks of these dozen of cambric handkerchiefs; for I can dispose of them this afternoon to a chap in the City.

Exit.