The Double-Dealer: A Comedy

LADY TOUCHWOOD, MASKWELL, MELLEFONT _absconding_.

Mask. I confess you do reproach me when I see you here before me; but 'tis fit I should be still behindhand, still to be more and more indebted to your goodness.

Lady Touch. You can excuse a fault too well, not to have been to blame. A ready answer shows you were prepared.

Mask. Guilt is ever at a loss, and confusion waits upon it; when innocence and bold truth are always ready for expression.

Lady Touch. Not in love: words are the weak support of cold indifference; love has no language to be heard.

Mask. Excess of joy has made me stupid! Thus may my lips be ever closed. [_Kisses her_.] And thus--O who would not lose his speech, upon condition to have joys above it?

Lady Touch. Hold, let me lock the door first. [_Goes to the door_.]

Mask. [_Aside_.] That I believed; 'twas well I left the private passage open.

Lady Touch. So, that's safe.

Mask. And so may all your pleasures be, and secret as this kiss--

Mel. And may all treachery be thus discovered. [_Leaps out_.]

Lady Touch. Ah! [_Shrieks_.]

Mel. Villain! [_Offers to draw_.]

Mask. Nay, then, there's but one way. [_Runs out_.]