_Isab._ Oh! to be sure, keep up your form; don't see him in a bed-chamber--[_Apart._] This is pure prudence, when she is liable, wherever he meets her, to be conveyed where'er he pleases. _Ind._ All the rest of my life is but waiting till he comes. I live only when I'm with him. [_Exit._ _Isab._ Well, go thy ways, thou wilful innocent!--[_Aside._] I once had almost as much love for a man, who poorly left me to marry an estate; and I am now, against my will, what they call an old maid--but I will not let the peevishness of that condition grow upon me, only keep up the suspicion of it, to prevent this creature's being any other than a virgin, except upon proper terms. [_Exit._ _Re-enter_ INDIANA, _speaking to a Servant._ _Ind._ Desire Mr. Bevil to walk in--Design! impossible! A base designing mind could never think of what he hourly puts in practice. And yet, since the late rumour of his marriage, he seems more reserved than formerly--he sends in too, before he sees me, to know if I am at leisure--such new respects may cover coldness in the heart; it certainly makes me thoughtful--I'll know the worst at once; I'll lay such fair occasions in his way, that it shall be impossible to avoid an explanation, for these doubts are insupportable!--But see, he comes, and clears them all. _Enter_ BEVIL. _Bev._ Madam, your most obedient--I am afraid I broke in upon your rest last night; 'twas very late before we parted, but 'twas your own fault. I never saw you in such agreeable humour. _Ind._ I am extremely glad we were both pleased; for I thought I never saw you better company. _Bev._ Me, madam! you rally; I said very little. _Ind._ But I am afraid you heard me say a great deal; and, when a woman is in the talking vein, the most agreeable thing a man can do, you know, is to have patience to hear her. _Bev._ Then it's pity, madam, you should ever be silent, that we might be always agreeable to one another. _Ind._ If I had your talent or power, to make my actions speak for me, I might indeed be silent, and you pretend to something more than the agreeable. _Bev._ If I might be vain of anything in my power, madam, 'tis that my understanding, from all your sex, has marked you out as the most deserving object of my esteem. _Ind._ Should I think I deserve this, 'twere enough to make my vanity forfeit the very esteem you offer me. _Bev._ How so, madam? _Ind._ Because esteem is the result of reason, and to deserve it from good sense, the height of human glory. Nay, I had rather a man of honour should pay me that, than all the homage of a sincere and humble love. _Bev. Jun._ You certainly distinguish right, madam; love often kindles from external merit only. _Ind._ But esteem rises from a higher source, the merit of the soul. _Bev. Jun._ True--And great souls only can deserve it. [_Bowing respectfully._ _Ind._ Now I think they are greater still, that can so charitably part with it.