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SCENE II] THE OLD BACHELOR 61
oblige me then, cousin, and let me have all the company
to myself?
Belin. No; upon deliberation, I have too much charity to
trust you to yourself. The devil watches all opportunities;
and, in this favourable disposition of your mind, Heaven
knows how far you may be tempted: I am tender of your
reputation.
Aram. I am obliged to you. But who's malicious now,
Belinda?
Belin. Not I; witness my heart, I stay out of pure affection.
Aram. In my conscience, I believe you.
Enter VAINLoVE and BELLMoUR.
Bell. So, fortune be praised!—To find you both within,
ladies, is—
Aram. No miracle, I hope.
Bell. Not o' your side, madam, I confess.—But my tyrant
there and I are two buckets that can never come together,
Belin. Nor are ever like.—Yet we often meet and clash.
Bell. How, never like! marry, Hymen forbid! But this it is
to run so extravagantly in debt; I have laid out such a world
of love in your service, that you think you can never be able
to pay me all; so shun me for the same reason that you
would a dun.
Belin. Ay, on my conscience, and the most impertinent
and troublesome of duns.—A dun for money will be quiet,
when he sees his debtor has not wherewithal; but a dun for
love is an eternal torment that never rests.
Bell. Till he has created love where there was none, and
then gets it for his pains.—For importunity in love, like
importunity at court, first creates its own interest, and then
pursues it for the favour.
Aram. Favours that are got by impudence and importunity,
are like discoveries from the rack, when the afflicted
person, for his ease, sometimes confesses secrets his heart
knows nothing of.
Vain. I should rather think favours, so gained, to be due
rewards to indefatigable devotion.—For as Love is a deity,
he must be served by prayer.
Belin. O gad, would you would all pray to Love then,
and let us alone!