said: 'I desired you never to speak of him again; but if you would
undertake another suit, I had rather hear you solicit, than music from
the spheres.' This was pretty plain speaking, but Olivia soon explained
herself still more plainly, and openly confessed her love; and when she
saw displeasure with perplexity expressed in Viola's face, she said: 'O
what a deal of scorn looks beautiful in the contempt and anger of his
lip! Cesario, by the roses of the spring, by maidhood, honour, and by
truth, I love you so, that, in spite of your pride, I have neither wit
nor reason to conceal my passion.' But in vain the lady wooed; Viola
hastened from her presence, threatening never more to come to plead
Orsino's love; and all the reply she made to Olivia's fond solicitation
was, a declaration of a resolution Never to love any woman.

No sooner had Viola left the lady than a claim was made upon her
velour. A gentleman, a rejected suitor of Olivia, who had learned how
that lady had favoured the duke's messenger, challenged him to fight a
duel. What should poor Viola do, who, though she carried a manlike
outside, had a true woman's heart, and feared to look on her own sword?

When she saw her formidable rival advancing towards her with his sword
drawn, she began to think of confessing that she was a woman; but she
was relieved at once from her terror, and the shame of such a
discovery, by a stranger that was passing by, who made up to them, and
as if he had been long known to her, and were her dearest friend, said
to her opponent: 'If this young gentleman has done offence, I will take
the fault on me; and if you offend him, I will for his sake defy you.'
Before Viola had time to thank him for his protection, or to inquire
the reason of his kind interference, her new friend met with an enemy
where his bravery was of no use to him; for the officers of justice
coming up in that instant, apprehended the stranger in the duke's name,
to answer for an offence he had committed some years before: and he
said to Viola: 'This comes with seeking you': and then he asked her for
a purse, saying: 'Now my necessity makes me ask for my purse, and it
grieves me much more for what I cannot do for you, than for what
befalls myself. You stand amazed, but be of comfort.' His words did
indeed amaze Viola, and she protested she knew him not, nor had ever
received a purse from him; but for the kindness he had just shown her,
she offered him a small sum of mo