_Wild_. Forward minx! [Aside.]
Maids should not sing love-songs to gentlemen!
Think'st neighbour Constance is a girl to love?

_True_. A girl to love?--Ay, and with all her soul!

_Wild_. How know you that?

_True_. I have studied close the sex.

_Wild_. You town-rakes are the devil for the sex! [Aside.]

_True_. Not your most sensitive and serious maid
I'd always take for deep impressions. Mind
The adage of the bow. The pensive brow
I have oft seen bright in wedlock, and anon
O'ercast in widowhood; then, bright again.
Ere half the season of the weeds was out;
While, in the airy one, I have known one cloud
Forerunner of a gloom that ne'er cleared up--
So would it prove with neighbour Constance. Not
On superficial grounds she'll ever love;
But once she does, the odds are ten to one
Her first love is her last!

_Wild_. I wish I ne'er
Had come to town! I was a happy man
Among my dogs and horses. [Aside.] Hast thou broke
Thy passion to her?

_True_. Never.

_Wild_. Never?

_True_. No.
I hoped you'd act my proxy there.

_Wild_. I thank you.

_True_. I knew 'twould be a pleasure to you.

_Wild_. Yes;
A pleasure!--an unutterable pleasure!

_True_. Thank you! You make my happiness your own.

_Wild_. I do.

_True_. I see you do. Dear Master Wildrake!
Oh, what a blessing is a friend in need!
You'll go and court your neighbour for me?

_Wild_. Yes.

_True_. And says she "nay" at first, you'll press again?

_Wild_. Ay, and again!

_True_. There's one thing I mistrust--yea, most mistrust,
That of my poor deserts you'll make too much.

_Wild_. Fear anything but that.

_True_. 'Twere better far
You slightly spoke of them.

_Wild_. You think so?

_True_. Yes.
Or rather did not speak of them at all.

_Wild_. You think so?

_True_. Yes.

_Wild_. Then I'll not say a word
About them.

_True_. Thank you! A judicious friend
Is better than a zealous: you are both!
I see you'll plead my cause as 'twere your own;
Then stay in town, and win your neighbour for me;
Make me the envy of a score of men
That die for her as I do. Make her mine,
And when the last "Amen!" declares complete
The mystic tying of the holy knot,
And 'fore the priest a blushing wife she stands,
Be thine the right to claim the second kiss
She pays for change from maidenhood to wifehood.

[Goes out.]

_Wild_. Take that thyself! The first be mine, or none!
A man in love with neighbo