Scene IV.

TATTLE, MISS PRUE.

MISS PRUE
O Mr Tattle, are you here? I'm glad I have found you; I have been looking up and down for you like anything, till I'm as tired as anything in the world.

TATTLE
Oh, pox, how shall I get rid of this foolish girl? [Aside.]

MISS PRUE
Oh, I have pure news, I can tell you, pure news. I must not marry the seaman now--my father says so. Why won't you be my husband? You say you love me, and you won't be my husband. And I know you may be my husband now, if you please.

TATTLE
Oh, fie, miss; who told you so, child?

MISS PRUE
Why, my father. I told him that you loved me.

TATTLE
Oh, fie, miss; why did you do so? And who told you so, child?

MISS PRUE
Who? Why, you did; did not you?

TATTLE
Oh, pox, that was yesterday, miss, that was a great while ago, child. I have been asleep since; slept a whole night, and did not so much as dream of the matter.

MISS PRUE
Pshaw--oh, but I dreamt that it was so, though.

TATTLE
Ay, but your father will tell you that dreams come by contraries, child. Oh, fie; what, we must not love one another now. Pshaw, that would be a foolish thing indeed. Fie, fie, you're a woman now, and must think of a new man every morning and forget him every night. No, no, to marry is to be a child again, and play with the same rattle always. Oh, fie, marrying is a paw thing.

MISS PRUE
Well, but don't you love me as well as you did last night then?

TATTLE
No, no, child, you would not have me.

MISS PRUE
No? Yes, but I would, though.

TATTLE
Pshaw, but I tell you you would not. You forget you're a woman and don't know your own mind.

MISS PRUE
But here's my father, and he knows my mind.