_Touch._ Come apace, good AUDREY: I will fetch up your votes, AUDREY. And how, AUDREY?--am I the man yet? Doth my simple programme content you? _Audrey._ Your programme! Lord warrant us, what programme? _Touch._ I am here with thee and thy Votes as the glittering poet-god Apollo was among the herds of Admetus. _Jaq._ (_aside_). Oh, knowledge oddly applied! Fancy Olympian Oracles in a thatched cottage! _Touch._ When a man's speeches cannot be understood, nor a man's good platform wit seconded by the froward child popular understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a small minority on a big Bill. Truly, I would the gods had made thee political. _Aud._ I do not know what political is. Is it honest in deed and word? Is it a true thing? _Touch._ (_with sardonic frankness_). No, truly; for the truest politics show the most feigning; and Tories are given to politics; and what they swear, in politics, may be said, as Tories, they do feign. _Aud._ Do you wish, then, that the gods had made _me_ political? _Touch._ I do, truly; for they swear to me thou art true Tory, parson-and-squire-ridden Tory. Now, if thou wert political, I might have some hope thou didst feign--to _them_! _Aud._ Would you not have me Tory? _Touch._ No, truly, unless thou wert fortune-favoured; for Toryism coupled to poverty is to have folly a sauce to misery. _Jaq._ (_aside_). A shrewd fool! _Aud._ Well, I am not rich; and therefore I pray the gods to make me Liberal. _Touch._ Truly, and to cast away Liberalism upon a willingly "unemancipated" Voter, were to deck a porker with pearls. _Aud._ I may not be "emancipated," but I thank the gods I am "enfranchised." _Touch._ Well, praised be the Liberals for thine enfranchisement! Emancipation--from "squarsonry"--may come hereafter. But, be it as it may, I will marry thee. _Jaq._ (_aside_). I would fain see this wedding. Methinks there will be sport forward ere it be fully achieved. _Aud._ Well, the gods give us joy! _Touch._ Amen.... But, AUDREY, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to you. _Aud._ Ay, I know who 'tis: he hath no interest in me in the world. Here comes the man you mean. _Touch._ It is meat and drink to me to see a--Tory: by my troth, we that have good wits have much to answer for; we shall be flouting; we cannot hold. _Enter_ WILLIAM. _Will._ Good even, AUDREY. _Aud._ Give ye good even, WILLIAM. _Will._ And good even to you, Sir! _Touch._ Good even, gentle friend.... Art thou wise? _Will._ Ay, Sir, I have a pretty wit. _Touch._ You do desire this maid? _Will._ I do, Sir. _Touch._ Give me your hand. Art thou learned? _Will._ No, Sir. _Touch._ Then learn this of me; to have is to have; for it is a great figure in Gladstonian rhetoric, that votes being deducted from one Party and added to another, by putting the one Out do put the other In; for all your writers do consent that _ipse_ is he: now you are not _ipse_, for I am he. _Will._ Which he, Sir?