_Fl._ It was the money which your ladyship gave him, That made us think of marrying. _D._ Worse and worse! To spend my present on my waiting-maid.— O thy pretension! thy pretension! Think you He really loves you? _Fl._ Why not? _Maids._ Ay, why not? 2270 _D._ What hath he ever said to make you think He loves you, Flora? _Fl._ He told me very often, Before I’d have him.... _D._ Ah! _Kate._ And that I warrant. He’s not one of your struck-dumb mumbling sort, That haven’t a word. _D._ Silence! And tell me, Flora, Something he has said. _Fl._ He calls me his little love,—his duck: 2275 And says a hundred thousand pretty things As often as we meet. _D._ A hundred thousand! His compliments are cheap. Duck, too! _Fl._ My lady, ’Tis what men say. It does not mean a duck. _Kate._ ’Tis true, my lady; ’tis a common saying. _D._ Silence! No one of you dare from this moment To speak to me. You are all alike disgraced. 2282 And, that you are not more shamed, disgraced the more. I shall discharge you all. _Kate._ What! and Rose too! _D._ To-morrow morning. Bút, Flóra, for you I cannot think of punishment sufficient. Merely to have had a lover,—to have concealed it,— To have even admitted him by night,—were nothing, Had the affair been.... _Re-enter Sir Gregory up the stairs with Tristram’s hat, holding it up._ _G._ Found on the stairs,—the intruder’s hat, my lady: 2290 He had thrown it on the lamp to extinguish it, And thereby is detected. _R._ (_aside_). Now’s revelation. _D._ Why,—but whose hat is this? _Fl._ ’Tis his, my lady. _R._ Is not this Tristram’s hat? _D._ (_aside_). Hath he come hither in his servant’s clothes? _Fl._ It’s Tristram’s hat. _K._ At least what’s left of it. _D._ Came he disguised? _Fl._ ’Twas thus, my lady. As he ran down the stairs, I bade him dout the lamp. I did not mean That he should burn his hat. _D._ (_aside_). What can this be? It can’t have been Tristram.—Answer me, Flora: Was it master Tristram visited you to-night? 2301 _Fl._ Of course, my lady. I’d not deny it. _D._ (_aside_). I see! After all, only Tristram.—Came he alone? Answer me at once. _Fl._ I am much ashamed, my lady, He came alone. And yet, my lady, I swear I never bade him; nor asked him, for that matter. I heard his step, and found him waiting there By the big clock. How he came in I know not. _D._ Enough: I shall discover. All leave but Flora. [_Exeunt maids except Fl._