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Show The Recruiting Officer. 9 Plume. Another! w h o is he ? Wor. M y Rival in the firft place, and the moft unaccountable Fellow but III tell you more as we go. [Exeunt. , S C E N E, An Apartment. Melinda and Silvia meeting. Mel. Welcome to T o w n , Coufin Silvia, [Salute.'] I envy'd you your Retreat in the Country; for Shrewsbury, methinks, and all your Heads of Shires, are the moft irregular places for living ; here w e have Smoak, Noife, Scandal, Affectation, and Pretenfion ; in fliort, every thing to give the Spleen > and nothing to divert it -then the Air is intolerable. Sil. O M a d a m i I have heard the T o w n commended for its Air. Mel. But you don't confider, Silvia, how long I have liv'd in't! for 1 can allure you, that to a Lady, the leaft Nice in her Conftitution No Air can be good above half a Year. Change of Air, I take to be the moft agreeable of any V a riety in Life. Sil. As you fay, Coufin Melinda, there are feveral forts of Airs. Mel. Pfha ! I talk only of the Air w e breath, or more properly of that w e tafte Have not you, Silvia, found a vaft difference in the Tafte of Airs ? Sil. Pray, Coufin, are not Vapours a fort of Air ? tafte Air! you might as well tell me, I m a y feed upon Air: But prithee , m y dca? Alelinda , don't put on fuch an Air to me. Vour Education and mine were juft the fame ; and I remember the time, when we never troubled our Heads about Air, but when the fharp Air from the Welfh Mountains made pur Fingers ake in a cold Morning at the Boarding-School. Mel. Our Education, Coufin, was the fame, but our Temperaments had nothing alike; you have the Conftitution of an Horfe. Si!. So far as to be troubld with neither Spleen, Collie ky nor Vapours; I need no Salts for m y Stomach, no Harts-horn for m y Head, nor Wafh for m y Complexion. 1 can gallop all the Morning after the Hunting-horn, and all the Evening after a Fiddle. In fhort, I can do every thing witlj m y Father^ but drink, and fhoot flying; and I a m fure, I can do every thing m y Mother cou'd, were I put to the Trial. Mel. You are in a fair way of being put to't; for I a m told your Captain is come to Town. Sil. |