The Double-Dealer, a comedy Part 18

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 pa.s.sage 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_.]

SCENE XVIII.

LADY TOUCHWOOD, MELLEFONT.

MEL. Say you so, were you provided for an escape? Hold, madam, you have no more holes to your burrow; I'll stand between you and this sally-port.

LADY TOUCH. Thunder strike thee dead for this deceit, immediate lightning blast thee, me, and the whole world! Oh! I could rack myself, play the vulture to my own heart, and gnaw it piecemeal, for not boding to me this misfortune.

MEL. Be patient.

LADY TOUCH. Be d.a.m.ned.

MEL. Consider, I have you on the hook; you will but flounder yourself a- weary, and be nevertheless my prisoner.

LADY TOUCH. I'll hold my breath and die, but I'll be free.

MEL. O madam, have a care of dying unprepared, I doubt you have some unrepented sins that may hang heavy, and r.e.t.a.r.d your flight.

LADY TOUCH. O! what shall I do? say? Whither shall I turn? Has h.e.l.l no remedy?

MEL. None; h.e.l.l has served you even as heaven has done, left you to yourself.--You're in a kind of Erasmus paradise, yet if you please you may make it a purgatory; and with a little penance and my absolution all this may turn to good account.

LADY TOUCH. [_Aside_.] Hold in my pa.s.sion, and fall, fall a little, thou swelling heart; let me have some intermission of this rage, and one minute's coolness to dissemble. [_She weeps_.]

MEL. You have been to blame. I like those tears, and hope they are of the purest kind,--penitential tears.

LADY TOUCH. O the scene was shifted quick before me,--I had not time to think. I was surprised to see a monster in the gla.s.s, and now I find 'tis myself; can you have mercy to forgive the faults I have imagined, but never put in practice?--O consider, consider how fatal you have been to me, you have already killed the quiet of this life. The love of you was the first wandering fire that e'er misled my steps, and while I had only that in view, I was betrayed into unthought of ways of ruin.

MEL. May I believe this true?

LADY TOUCH. O be not cruelly incredulous.--How can you doubt these streaming eyes? Keep the severest eye o'er all my future conduct, and if I once relapse, let me not hope forgiveness; 'twill ever be in your power to ruin me. My lord shall sign to your desires; I will myself create your happiness, and Cynthia shall be this night your bride. Do but conceal my failings, and forgive.

MEL. Upon such terms I will be ever yours in every honest way.

SCENE XIX.

MASKWELL _softly introduces_ LORD TOUCHWOOD, _and retires_.

MASK. I have kept my word, he's here, but I must not be seen.

SCENE XX.

LADY TOUCHWOOD, LORD TOUCHWOOD, MELLEFONT.

LORD TOUCH. h.e.l.l and amazement, she's in tears.

LADY TOUCH. [_Kneeling_.] Eternal blessings thank you.--Ha! my lord listening! O fortune has o'erpaid me all, all! all's my own! [_Aside_.]

MEL. Nay, I beseech you rise.

LADY TOUCH. [_Aloud_.] Never, never! I'll grow to the ground, be buried quick beneath it, e'er I'll be consenting to so d.a.m.ned a sin as incest! unnatural incest!

MEL. Ha!

LADY TOUCH. O cruel man, will you not let me go? I'll forgive all that's past. O heaven, you will not ravish me?

MEL. d.a.m.nation!

LORD TOUCH. Monster, dog! your life shall answer this! [_Draws and runs at_ MELLEFONT, _is held by_ LADY TOUCHWOOD.]

LADY TOUCH. O heavens, my lord! Hold, hold, for heaven's sake.

MEL. Confusion, my uncle! O the d.a.m.ned sorceress.