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158 WILLIAM CONGREVE [ACT Iv
Cyn. Within reach; for example, give me your hand; you
have looked through the wrong end of the perspective all
this while; for nothing has been between us but our fears.
Mel. I don't know why we should not steal out of the
house this very moment, and marry one another, without
consideration, or the fear of repentance. Pox o' fortune, portion,
settlements, and jointures!
Cyn. Ay, ay, what have we to do with 'em?—you know
we marry for love.
Mel. Love, love, downright, very villainous luve.
Cyn. And he that can't live upon love deserves to die in a
ditch. Here, then, I give you my promise, in spite of duty,
any temptation of wealth, your inconstancy, or my own
inclination to change—
Mel. To run most wilfully and unreasonably away with
me this moment, and be married.
Cyn. Hold!—never to marry anybody else.
Mel. That's but a kind of negative consent.—Why, you
won't balk the frolic?
Cyn. If you had not been so assured of your own conduct
I would not;—but 'tis but reasonable that since I consent
to like a man without the vile consideration of money,
he should give me a very evident demonstration of his wit;
therefore let me see you undermine my Lady Touchwood,
as you boasted, and force her to give her consent, and
then—
Mel. I'll do't.
Cyn. And I'll do't.
Mel. This very next ensuing hour of eight o'clock is the
last minute of her reign, unless the devil assist her in proprid
persond.
Cyn. Well, if the devil should assist her, and your plot
miscarry?
Mel. Ay, what am I to trust to then?
Cyn. Why, if you give me very clear demonstration that
it was the devil, I'll allow for irresistible odds. But if I
find it to be only chance, or destiny, or unlucky stars, or
anything but the very devil, I am inexorable; only still I'll
keep my word, and live a maid for your sake.
Mel. And you won't die one for your own; so still there's
hope.
Cyn. Here's my mother-in-law, and your friend Careless;
I would not have 'em see us together yet. \They retire.