LOVELESS. [_Aside_.] She has reason on her side; I have talked too much; but I must turn off another way.—[_Aloud_.] Will you then make no difference, Amanda, between the language of our sex and yours? There is a modesty restrains your tongues, which makes you speak by halves when you commend; but roving flattery gives a loose to ours, which makes us still speak double what we think. _Enter_ SERVANT. SERVANT. Madam, there is a lady at the door in a chair desires to know whether your ladyship sees company; her name is Berinthia. AMANDA. Oh dear! ’tis a relation I have not seen these five years; pray her to walk in.—[_Exit_ SERVANT.] Here’s another beauty for you; she was, when I saw her last, reckoned extremely handsome. LOVELESS. Don’t be jealous now; for I shall gaze upon her too. _Enter_ BERINTHIA. Ha! by heavens, the very woman! [_Aside_.] BERINTHIA. [_Salutes_ AMANDA.] Dear Amanda, I did not expect to meet you in Scarborough. AMANDA. Sweet cousin, I’m overjoyed to see you.—Mr. Loveless, here’s a relation and a friend of mine, I desire you’ll be better acquainted with. LOVELESS. [_Salutes_ BERINTHIA.] If my wife never desires a harder thing, madam, her request will be easily granted. _Re-enter_ SERVANT. SERVANT. Sir, my Lord Foppington presents his humble service to you, and desires to know how you do. He’s at the next door; and, if it be not inconvenient to you, he’ll come and wait upon you. LOVELESS. Give my compliments to his lordship, and I shall be glad to see him.—[_Exit_ SERVANT.] If you are not acquainted with his lordship, madam, you will be entertained with his character. AMANDA. Now it moves my pity more than my mirth to see a man whom nature has made no fool be so very industrious to pass for an ass. LOVELESS. No, there you are wrong, Amanda; you should never bestow your pity upon those who take pains for your contempt: pity those whom nature abuses, never those who abuse nature. _Enter_ LORD FOPPINGTON. LORD FOPPINGTON. Dear Loveless, I am your most humble servant. LOVELESS. My lord, I’m yours. LORD FOPPINGTON. Madam, your ladyship’s very obedient slave. LOVELESS. My lord, this lady is a relation of my wife’s. LORD FOPPINGTON. [_Salutes_ BERINTHIA.] The beautifullest race of people upon earth, rat me! Dear Loveless, I am overjoyed that you think of continuing here: I am, stap my vitals!—[_To_ AMANDA.] For Gad’s sake, madam, how has your ladyship been able to subsist thus long, under the fatigue of a country life? AMANDA. My life has been very far from that, my lord; it has been a very quiet one. LORD FOPPINGTON. Why, that’s the fatigue I speak of, madam; for ’tis impossible to be quiet without thinking: now thinking is to me the greatest fatigue in the world. AMANDA. Does not your lordship love reading, then?