you would admire me! cry up every word I
said, and screw your face into a submissive smile; as I have seen a
dull gallant act wit, and counterfeit pleasantness, when he whispers
to a great person in a play-house; smile, and look briskly, when the
other answers, as if something of extraordinary had past betwixt them,
when, heaven knows, there was nothing else but,--What a clock does
your lordship think it is? And my lord's _repartee_ is,--It is almost
park-time: or, at most,--Shall we out of the pit, and go behind the
scenes for an act or two--And yet such fine things as these would be
wit in a mistress's mouth.

_Pala._ Ay, boy; there dame Nature's in the case: He, who cannot find
wit in a mistress, deserves to find nothing else, boy. But these are
riddles to thee, child, and I have not leisure to instruct thee; I
have affairs to dispatch, great affairs; I am a man of business.

_Dor._ Come, you shall not go: You have no affairs but what you may
dispatch here, to my knowledge.

_Pala._ I find now, thou art a boy of more understanding than I
thought thee; a very lewd wicked boy: O' my conscience, thou would'st
debauch me, and hast some evil designs upon my person.

_Dor._ You are mistaken, sir; I would only have you shew me a more
lawful reason why you would leave me, than I can why you should not,
and I'll not stay you; for I am not so young, but I understand the
necessities of flesh and blood, and the pressing occasions of mankind,
as well as you.

_Pala._ A very forward and understanding boy! thou art in great danger
of a page's wit, to be brisk at fourteen, and dull at twenty. But I'll
give thee no further account; I must, and will go.

_Dor._ My life on it, your mistress is not at home.

_Pala._ This imp will make me very angry.--I tell thee, young sir, she
is at home, and at home for me; and, which is more, she is a-bed for
me, and sick for me.

_Dor._ For you only?

_Pala._ Aye, for me only.

_Dor._ But how do you know she's sick a-bed?

_Pala._ She sent her husband word so.

_Dor._ And are you such a novice in love, to believe a wife's message
to her husband?

_Pala._ Why, what the devil should be her meaning else?

_Dor._ It may be, to go in masquerade, as well as you; to observe your
haunts, and keep you company without your knowledge.

_Pala._ Nay, I'll trust her for that: She loves me too well, to
disguise herself from me.

_Dor._ If I were she, I would disguise on purpose to try your wit