[To them] MRS FORESIGHT.
MRS FORESIGHT
Husband, will you go to bed? It's ten a'clock. Mr
Scandal, your servant.
SCANDAL
Pox on her, she has interrupted my design--but I must work
her into the project. You keep early hours, madam.
MRS FORESIGHT
Mr Foresight is punctual; we sit up after him.
FORESIGHT
My dear, pray lend me your glass, your little looking-glass.
SCANDAL
Pray lend it him, madam. I'll tell you the reason.
[She gives him the glass: SCANDAL and she whisper.] My passion for you is grown so violent, that I am no longer master of myself. I was interrupted in the morning, when you had charity enough to give me your attention, and I had hopes of finding another opportunity of explaining myself to you, but was disappointed all this day; and the uneasiness that has attended me ever since brings me now hither at this unseasonable hour.
MRS FORESIGHT
Was there ever such impudence, to make love to me before
my husband's face? I'll swear I'll tell him.
SCANDAL
Do. I'll die a martyr rather than disclaim my passion. But
come a little farther this way, and I'll tell you what project I had
to get him out of the way; that I might have an opportunity of
waiting upon you. [Whisper. FORESIGHT looking in the glass.]
FORESIGHT
I do not see any revolution here; methinks I look with a
serene and benign aspect--pale, a little pale--but the roses of
these cheeks have been gathered many years;--ha! I do not like that
sudden flushing. Gone already! hem, hem, hem! faintish. My heart
is pretty good; yet it beats; and my pulses, ha!--I have none--mercy
on me--hum. Yes, here they are--gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop,
gallop, gallop, hey! Whither will they hurry me? Now they're gone
again. And now I'm faint again, and pale again, and hem! and my
hem! breath, hem! grows short; hem! hem! he, he, hem!
SCANDAL
It takes: pursue it in the name of love and pleasure.
MRS FORESIGHT
How do you do, Mr Foresight!
FORESIGHT
Hum, not so well as I thought I was. Lend me your hand.
SCANDAL
Look you there now. Your lady says your sleep has been
unquiet of late.
FORESIGHT
Very likely.
MRS FORESIGHT
Oh, mighty restless, but I was afraid to tell him so. He
has been subject to talking and starting.
SCANDAL
And did not use to be so?
MRS FORESIGHT
Never, never, till within these three nights; I cannot
say that he has once broken my rest since we have been married.
FORESIGHT
I will go to bed.
SCANDAL
Do so, Mr Foresight, and say your prayers. He looks better
than he did.
MRS FORESIGHT
Nurse, nurse!
FORESIGHT
Do you think so, Mr Scandal?
SCANDAL
Yes, yes. I hope this will be gone by morning, taking it in
time.
FORESIGHT
I hope so.
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