SCENE I. A Chocolate House.

MIRABELL and FAINALL, rising from Cards; BETTY waiting.

Mir. You are a fortunate man, Mr. Fainall.

Fain. Have we done?

Mir. What you please. I'll play on to entertain you.

Fain. No, I'll give you your revenge another time, when you are not so indifferent; you are thinking of something else now, and play too negligently; the coldness of a losing gamester lessens the pleasure of the winner. I'd no more play with a man that slighted his ill fortune, than I'd make love to a woman who undervalued the loss of her reputation.

Mir. You have a taste extremely delicate, and are for refining on your pleasures.

Fain. Pr'ythee, why so reserved? Something has put you out of humour.

Mir. Not at all: I happen to be grave to-day; and you are gay; that's all.

Fain. Confess, Millamant and you quarrelled last night, after I left yon: my fair cousin has some humours that would tempt the patience of a stoic. What, some coxcomb came in, aud was well received by her, while you were by?

Mir. Witwould and Petulant! and what was worse, her aunt, your wife's mother, my evil genius; or to sum up all in her own name, my old lady Wishfort

came in.

Fain. O there it is then. for you, and with reason. there?

She has a lasting passion
What, then my wife was

Mir. Yes, and Mrs. Marwood, and three or four more, whom I never saw before. Seeing me, they all put on their grave faces, whispered one another, then complained aloud of the vapours, and after fell into a profound silence.

Fain. They had a mind to be rid of you.

Mir. For which reason I resolved not to stir. At last the good old lady broke through her painful taciturnity, with an invective against long visits. I would not have understood her, but Millamant joining in the argument, I rose, and with a constrained smile told her, I thought nothing was so easy as to know when a visit began to be troublesome; she redden'd, and I withdrew, without expecting her reply.

Fain. You were to blame to resent what she spoke only in compliance with her aunt.

Mir. She is more mistress of herself than to be under the necessity of such resignation.

Fain. What! though half her fortune depends upon her marrying with my lady's approbation?

Mir. I was then in such a bumour, that I should have been better pleased if she had been less discreet.

Fain. Now I remember, I wonder not they were weary of you; last night was one of their cabal nights; they have 'em three times a week, and meet by turns, at one another's apartments; where they come together, like the coroner's inquest, to sit upon the murder'd reputations of the week. You and I are excluded; and

it was once proposed that all the male sex should be excepted; but somebody moved, that, to avoid scandal, there might be one man of the community; upon which motion Witwould and Petulaut were enrolled members.

Mir. And who may have been the foundress of this sect? My lady Wishfort, I warrant, who publishes her detestation of mankind; and, full of the vigour of fiftyfive, declares for a friend and ratafia; and let posterity shift for itself, she'll breed no more.

Fain. The discovery of your sham addresses to her, to conceal your love to her niece, has provoked this separation: had you dissembled better, things might have continued in the state of nature.

Mir. I did as much as mau could, with any reasonable conscience; I proceeded to the very last act of flattery with her, and was guilty of a song in her commendation. Nay, I got a friend to put her into a lampoon, and compliment her with the addresses of a young fellow. The devil's in't if an old woman is to be flatter'd farther. But for the discovery of this amour, I am indebted to your friend, or your wife's friend, Mrs. Marwood.

Fain. What should provoke her to be your enemy, unless she has made you advances which you have slighted? Women do not easily forgive omissions of that nature.

Mir. She was always civil to me, till of late; I confess I am not one of those coxcombs who are apt to interpret a woman's good manners to her prejudice ; and think that she who does not refuse 'em every thing, can refuse 'em nothing.

Fain. You are a gallant man, Mirabell; and though you may have cruelty enough not to answer a lady's advances, you have too much generosity not to be tender of her honour. Yet you speak with an indifference which seems to be affected, and confesses you are conscious of a negligence."

Mir. You pursue the argument with a distrust that seems to be unaffected, and confesses you are conscious

of a concern for which the lady is more indebted to you, than is your wife. Fain. Fie, fie, friend, if you grow censorious, I must leave you. I'll look upon the gamesters in the next

room.

Mir. Who are they?

Fain. Petulant and Witwould. Bring me some chocolate.

Mir. Betty, what says your clock?

Betty. Turn'd of the last canonical hour, sir.

[Exit.

Mir. How pertinently the jade answers me! [Aside] Ha! almost one o'clock! [Looking on his Watch] O, y'are come.

Enter Footman.

Well; is the grand affair over? You have been something tedious.

Foot. Sir, there's such coupling at Pancras, that they stand behind one another, as 'twere in a country dance. Ours was the last couple to lead up; and no hopes appearing of dispatch, besides, the parson growing hoarse, we were afraid his lungs would have failed before it came to our turn; so we drove round to Duke'splace; and there they were rivetted in a trice. Mir. So, so; you are sure they are married? Foot. Incontestibly, sir: I am witness.

Mir. Have you the certificate?

Foot. Here it is, sir.

Mir. Has the tailor brought Waitwell's clothes home, and the new liveries?

Foot. Yes, sir.

Mir. That's well. Do you go home again, d'ye hear, bid Waitwell shake his ears, and dame Partlet rustle up her feathers, and meet me at one o'clock by Rosamond's-pond, that I may see her before she returns to her lady; and as you tender your ears, be secret. [Exit Footman.

Enter FAINALL.

Fain. Joy of your success, Mirabeli; you look pleased. Mir. Ay; I have been engaged in a matter of some