we can hear
him.

HEART. Why, whither in the devil's name am I agoing now? Hum--let me
think--is not this Silvia's house, the cave of that enchantress, and
which consequently I ought to shun as I would infection? To enter here
is to put on the envenomed shirt, to run into the embraces of a fever,
and in some raving fit, be led to plunge myself into that more consuming
fire, a woman's arms. Ha! well recollected, I will recover my reason,
and be gone.

BELL. Now Venus forbid!

VAIN. Hush--

HEART. Well, why do you not move? Feet, do your office--not one inch;
no, fore Gad I'm caught. There stands my north, and thither my needle
points. Now could I curse myself, yet cannot repent. O thou delicious,
damned, dear, destructive woman! S'death, how the young fellows will
hoot me! I shall be the jest of the town: nay, in two days I expect to
be chronicled in ditty, and sung in woful ballad, to the tune of the
Superannuated Maiden's Comfort, or the Bachelor's Fall; and upon the
third, I shall be hanged in effigy, pasted up for the exemplary ornament
of necessary houses and cobblers' stalls. Death, I can't think on't--I'll
run into the danger to lose the apprehension.

SCENE III.

BELLMOUR, VAINLOVE.

BELL. A very certain remedy, probatum est. Ha, ha, ha, poor George,
thou art i' th' right, thou hast sold thyself to laughter; the
ill-natured town will find the jest just where thou hast lost it. Ha,
ha, how a' struggled, like an old lawyer between two fees.

VAIN. Or a young wench between pleasure and reputation.

BELL. Or as you did to-day, when half afraid you snatched a kiss from
Araminta.

VAIN. She has made a quarrel on't.

BELL. Pauh, women are only angry at such offences to have the pleasure
of forgiving them.

VAIN. And I love to have the pleasure of making my peace. I should not
esteem a pardon if too easily won.

BELL. Thou dost not know what thou wouldst be at; whether thou wouldst
have her angry or pleased. Couldst thou be content to marry Araminta?

VAIN. Could you be content to go to heaven?

BELL. Hum, not immediately, in my conscience not heartily. I'd do a
little more good in my generation first, in order to deserve it.

VAIN. Nor I to marry Araminta till I merit her.

BELL. But how the devil dost thou expect to get her if she never yield?

VAIN. That's true; but I would--

BELL. Marry her without her consent; thou 'rt a riddle beyond woman--

SCENE