Racine: Phaedra

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER 423
unaccountable set of beings have we got amongst! This
Httle barmaid, though, runs in my head most strangely,
and drives out the absurdities of all the rest of the family.
She's mine, she must be mine, or I'm greatly mistaken
Hastings. Bless me !
Enter Hastings.
I quite forgot to tell her that I intended
to prepare at the bottom of the garden. Marlow here, arid
in spirits too
Marlow. Give me joy, George! Crown me, shadow me with
laurels ! Well, George, after all, we modest fellows don't
want for success among the women.
Hastings. Some women, you mean. But what success has
your honor's modesty been crowned with now, that it
grows so insolent upon us ?
Marlow. Didn't you see the tempting, brisk, lovely little thing
that runs about the house with a bunch of keys to its girdle ?
Hastings. Well! and what then?
Marlow. She's mine, you rogue, you. Such fire, such motion,
such eyes, such lips—but egad ! she would not let me kiss
them though.
Hastings. But are you sure, so very sure of her?
Marlow. Why, man, she talked of showing me her work above-
stairs, and I am to improve the pattern.
Hastings. But how can you, Charles, go about to rob a woman
of her honor?
Marlow. Pshaw ! pshaw ! we all know the honor of the barmaid
of an inn. I don't intend to rob her ; take my word
for it, there's nothing in this house I shan't honestly pay
for!
Hastings. I believe the girl has virtue.
Marlow. And if she has, I should be the last man in the
world that would attempt to corrupt it.
Hastings. You have taken care, I hope, of the casket I sent
you to lock up ? It's in safety ?
Marlow. Yes, yes. It's safe enough. I have taken care of
it. But how could you think the seat of a post-coach at
an Inn-door a place of safety ? Ah ! numbskull ! I have
taken better precautions for you than you did for your-
self. I have Classics. Vol. 36—