_Stu._ Villainy! 'Twere best to curb this licence of your tongue;
for know, Sir, while there are laws, this outrage on my reputation
will not be borne with.

_Lew._ Laws! Dar'st Thou seek shelter from the laws? those laws,
which thou and thy infernal crew live in the constant violation of?
Talk'st thou of reputation too? when under friendship's sacred name,
thou hast betrayed, robbed, and destroyed?

_Stu._ Ay, rail at gaming; 'tis a rich topic, and affords noble
declamation. Go, preach against it in the city: you'll find a
congregation in every tavern. If they should laugh at you, fly to my
lord, and sermonize it there: he'll thank you and reform.

_Lew._ And will example sanctify a vice? No, wretch; the custom of
my lord, or of the Cit that apes him, cannot excuse a breach of law,
or make the gamester's calling reputable.

_Stu._ Rail on, I say. But is this zeal for beggared Beverley? Is it
for Him that I am treated thus? No; He and His might all have
groaned in prison, had but the sister's fortune escaped the wreck,
to have rewarded the disinterested love of honest Mr. Lewson.

_Lew._ How I detest thee for the thought! But thou art lost to every
human feeling. Yet let me tell thee, and may it wring thy heart!
that though my friend is ruined by thy snares, thou hast unknowingly
been kind to Me.

_Stu._ Have I? It was indeed unknowingly.