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SCENE Iv] LOVE FOR LOVE 245
Scan. That may be, but your beard is longer than it was
two hours ago.
Fore. Indeed! bless me!
Enter Mrs. FORESIGHT.
Mrs. Fore. Husband, will you go to bed? it's ten o'clock.
—Mr. Scandal, your servant.
Scan. [Aside.] Pox on her! she has interrupted my
design:—but I must work her into the project.—[Aloud.]
You keep early hours, madam.
Mrs. Fore. Mr. Foresight is punctual, we sit up after him.
Fore. My dear, pray lend me your glass, your little
looking-glass.
Scan. Pray, lend it him, madam—I'll tell you the reason.
—[She gives him the glass: SCANDAL and she talk aside.]
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. Fore. Was there ever such impudence! to make love
to me before my husband's face! I'll swear I'll tell him.
Scan. 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.
Fore. [Looking in the glass.} 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 I—grows short; hem! hem! he, he, hem!
Scan. [Aside to Mrs. FORESIGHT.] It takes; pursue it, in
the name of love and pleasure!
Mrs. Fore. How do you do, Mr. Foresight?