Enter Mrs. Freeman.
Mrs. Free. What freak is this you have taken into your head. Miss Freeman, not to read with Ma'moiselle. It won't do, I assure you, to follow your own whimsies thus. You must study regularly and diligently, if you would ever become an elegant and accomplished woman.
Charl. I'm sure I shall never become either elegant or accomplished. Why need I scrawl versions eternally, and drum upon the piano-forte, and draw frightful figures till my fingers ache, and make my very life irksome to me, when I know very well I shall never be better than a poor heedless creature, constantly forgetting and exposing myself, after all? I know very well I shall never be either elegant or accomplished.
Mrs. Free. Why should you suppose so? there is no merit in being too diffident.
Gov. You should not tink so poor of yourself, Miss. You come on very well. Several lady say dat you are become so like to me in all de airs, and de grace, and de manners, dat you are quite odder ting dan you were.
Charl. No wonder, then, that they laugh at me.
Gov. (casting up her eyes.) Mon Dieu! She is mad! shall I shut her up in her chamber?
Mrs. Free. Stop a little, if you please: she does not speak altogether from the purpose neither. Come, come, Miss Freeman: rouse yourself up, and have some laudable ambition: the distinction of elegant accomplishments is not to be obtained without industry and attention.
