Balt. (going hastily towards the door, and stopping short again.) No, hang it! I can't do it now. (Exit hastily by the opposite side.)
Mrs. B. (shaking her head) I had great hopes from this accident, but his unhappy aversion is, I fear, incurable.
True. Don't despair yet: I prophecy better things. But do not, my dear Madam, before Baltimore at least, appear so anxious about it. It serves only to irritate him.
Mrs. B. Is it possible to be otherwise than anxious? This unlucky prejudice, gradually gaining strength from every little trivial circumstance, embitters all the comfort of our lives. And Freeman has so many good qualities—he might have been a valuable friend.
True. Very true; he is liberal, good-tempered, and benevolent; but he is vain, unpolished, and, with the aid of his ridiculous wife to encourage him, most provokingly ostentatious. You ought to make some allowance for a proud country gentleman, who now sees all the former dependants of his family ranging themselves under the patronage of a new, and, what he will falsely call a mean man.
Mrs. B. O, would make every allowance! but I would not encourage him in his prejudice.
True. The way to reclaim him, however, is not to run directly counter to it. I have never found him so ready to acknowledge Freeman's good qualities as when I have appeared, and have really been
