_F._ Your ladyship Must take this lady of your own creation With all her faults. Love is a luxury You may suspect in me when I have money To spend in presents. _D._ Whom you love I know not: But whether it be a queen or peasant girl, 210 ’Tis all one. Love exalteth above rank Or wealth; yet in Love’s ritual ’twere well wished To express your homage fully. Ho, Sir Gregory! Sir Gregory! _GREGORY._ Your ladyship! _D._ Give Frederick A hundred ducats at my household charge. _G._ (_to F._). What said my lady? _F._ (_aside_). An open insult. _T._ (_to G._). Thou’rt to give my master A hundred ducats for a wherewithal To make his lady presents. _F._ (_to T._). Silence, idiot. _T._ He heard not: you may lose the money. _G._ My lady, A gentleman from Milan. (_Presenting R._) _D._ (_half aside_[1]). Milan, say you? 221 I thought we had done with Milan. [1] The half-asides in the play in the presence of Gregory are spoken either with indifference as to whether G. will hear, or with confidence that he will not. _R._ Queen of Belflor, This letter from the Duke explains my coming. _D._ Welcome, sir, whencesoe’er: but if from Milan, Bringst thou this letter, or did it bring thee? _R._ I bring the letter, madam: and ’tis writ But in my favour. _D._ Good: on that assurance I’ll read. (_Opens letter._) (_F. has passed across to make way for G. and R., coming near Laura, front, side._) _LAURA_ (_to F._). You have my glove? _F._ Yes. _L._ When I drop the other, Exchange them secretly. 229 _D._ (_reading to audience_). _The bearer, my servant Ricardo, having hurt his challenger in a duel, I beg for him a few days’protection in your court, till some consequent rancour be appeased. Let my long silence and absence win for me this little grace._ With reason and good courtesy asked. Ricardo, Make your asylum here. Sir Gregory Will tell you that such residence implies Certain restraints, in which we look to find Compliance. (_Laura drops a glove, which F. snatches up, and is seen by the audience to exchange for another._) _NICHOLAS_ (_stepping forward between F. and L._). I pray thee, sir; nay sir, I pray. My duty. _F._ Is’t thy glove? _N._ Yes, when it falls. 240 _F._ How so? When heaven doth rain, it rains for all. Thou shouldst have picked it up. _N._ I ran to do so, But thou anticipatedest me. I pray Give’t me, that I restore it to my lady. _F._ Claim not her gloves, sir, till her gloves are thine. Now thou anticipatest. _N._ Sir Gregory! A question. _G._ Eigh!