MEL. By heav'n, into a hot furnace sooner.

MASK. No, you would not; it would not be so convenient, as I can order
matters.

MEL. What d'ye mean?

MASK. Mean? Not to disappoint the lady, I assure you. Ha, ha, ha, how
gravely he looks. Come, come, I won't perplex you. 'Tis the only thing
that providence could have contrived to make me capable of serving you,
either to my inclination or your own necessity.

MEL. How, how, for heav'n's sake, dear Maskwell?

MASK. Why, thus. I'll go according to appointment; you shall have
notice at the critical minute to come and surprise your aunt and me
together. Counterfeit a rage against me, and I'll make my escape through
the private passage from her chamber, which I'll take care to leave open.
'Twill be hard if then you can't bring her to any conditions. For this
discovery will disarm her of all defence, and leave her entirely at your
mercy--nay, she must ever after be in awe of you.

MEL. Let me adore thee, my better genius! By heav'n I think it is not
in the power of fate to disappoint my hopes--my hopes? My certainty!

MASK. Well, I'll meet you here, within a quarter of eight, and give you
notice.

MEL. Good fortune ever go along with thee.

SCENE V.

MELLEFONT, CARELESS.

CARE. Mellefont, get out o' th' way, my Lady Plyant's coming, and I
shall never succeed while thou art in sight. Though she begins to tack
about; but I made love a great while to no purpose.

MEL. Why, what's the matter? She's convinced that I don't care for her.

CARE. I can't get an answer from her, that does not begin with her
honour, or her virtue, her religion, or some such cant. Then she has
told me the whole history of Sir Paul's nine years courtship; how he has
lain for whole nights together upon the stairs before her chamber-door;
and that the first favour he received from her was a piece of an old
scarlet petticoat for a stomacher, which since the day of his marriage he
has out of a piece of gallantry converted into a night-cap, and wears it
still with much solemnity on his anniversary wedding-night.

MEL. That I have seen, with the ceremony thereunto belonging. For on
that night he creeps in at the bed's feet like a gulled bassa that has
married a relation of the Grand Signior, and that night he has his arms
at liberty. Did not she tell you at what a distance she keeps him? He
has confessed to me that, but at some certain times, that is, I suppose,
wh