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180 WILLIAM CONGREVE [ACT v
say truth, all our family arc choleric; I am the only peaceable
person amongst 'em. [Exeunt.
SCENE III
The Gallery in Lord ToUCHWDDD'S House
Enter MELLEFDNT, MASKWELL, and CYNTHIA.
Mel. I know no other way but this he has proposed;
if you have love enough to run the venture.
Cyn. I don't know whether I have love enough—but I
find I have obstinacy enough to pursue whatever I have
once resolved; and a true female courage to oppose anything
that resists my will, though 'twere reason itself.
Mask. That's right.—Well, I'll secure the writings, and
run the hazard along with you.
Cyn. But how can the coach and six horses be got ready
without suspicion?
Mask. Leave it to my care; that shall be so far from
being suspected, that it shall be got ready by my lord's own
order.
Mel. How?
Mask. Why, I intend to tell my lord the whole matter of
our contrivance, that's mv way.
Mel. I don't understand you.
Mask. Why, I'll tell my lord I laid this plot with you on
purpose to betray you; and that which put me upon it was
the finding it impossible to gain the lady any other way,
but in the hopes of her marrying you.
Mel. So—
Mask. So, why so, while you're busied in making yourself
ready, I'll wheedle her into the coach: and instead of
you, borrow my lord's chaplain, and so run away with her
myself,
Mel. O, I conceive you; you'll tell him so?
Mask. Tell him so! ay; why, you don't think I mean to dn
so? Mel. No, no; ha! ha! I dare swear thou wilt not.
Mask. Therefore, for our farther security, I would have
you disguised like a parson, that if my lord should have
curiosity to peep, he may not discover you in the coach,
but think the cheat is carried on as he would have it.