if
he would! Too high to the man that has held my soul in suspense an
hundred times, since (by artifice and deceit) he obtained a power over
me!--Say, Lovelace, thyself say, art thou not the very Lovelace, who by
insulting me, hast wronged thine own hopes?--The wretch that appeared in
vile disguises, personating an old, lame creature, seeking for lodgings
for thy sick wife?--Telling the gentlewomen here stories all of thine own
invention; and asserting to them an husband's right over me, which thou
hast not!--And is it [turning to the Captain] to be expected, that I
should give credit to the protestations of such a man?

Lovel. Treat me, my dearest creature, as you please, I will bear it:
and yet your scorn and your violence have fixed daggers in my heart--But
was it possible, without those disguises, to come at your speech?--And
could I lose you, if study, if invention, would put it in my power to
arrest your anger, and give me hope to engage you to confirm to me the
promised pardon? The address I made to you before the women, as if the
marriage-ceremony had passed, was in consequence of what your uncle had
advised, and what you had acquiesced with; and the rather made, as your
brother, and Singleton, and Solmes, were resolved to find out whether
what was reported of your marriage were true or not, that they might take
their measures accordingly; and in hopes to prevent that mischief, which
I have been but too studious to prevent, since this tameness has but
invited insolence from your brother and his confederates.

Cl. O thou strange wretch, how thou talkest!--But, Captain Tomlinson,
give me leave to say, that, were I inclined to enter farther upon this
subject, I would appeal to Miss Rawlins's judgment (whom else have I to
appeal to?) She seems to be a person of prudence and honour; but not to
any man's judgment, whether I carry my resentment beyond fit bounds, when
I resolve--

Capt. Forgive, Madam, the interruption--but I think there can be no
reason for this. You ought, as you said, to be the sole judge of
indignities offered you. The gentlewomen here are strangers to you. You
will perhaps stay but a little while among them. If you lay the state of
your case before any of them, and your brother come to inquire of them,
your uncle's intended mediation will be discovered, and rendered abortive
--I shall appear in a light that I never appeared in, in my life--for these
women may not think themselves o