_Myrt._ I am sure Mr. Bevil cannot doubt but I had rather have satisfaction from his innocence than his sword. _Bev._ Why, then, would you ask it first that way? _Myrt._ Consider, you kept your temper yourself no longer than till I spoke to the disadvantage of her you loved. _Bev._ True; but let me tell you, I have saved you from the most exquisite distress, even though you had succeeded in the dispute. I know you so well, that I am sure to have found this letter about a man you had killed would have been worse than death to yourself--Read it.--[_Aside._] When he is thoroughly mortified, and shame has got the better of jealousy, when he has seen himself throughly, he will deserve to be assisted towards obtaining Lucinda. _Myrt._ With what a superiority has he turned the injury on me, as the aggressor? I begin to fear I have been too far transported--A treaty in our family! is not that saying too much? I shall relapse.--But I find (on the postscript) something like jealousy. With what face can I see my benefactor, my advocate, whom I have treated like a betrayer? [_Aside._]--Oh! Bevil, with what words shall I---- _Bev._ There needs none; to convince is much more than to conquer. _Myrt._ But can you---- _Bev._ You have o'erpaid the inquietude you gave me, in the change I see in you towards me. Alas! what machines are we! thy face is altered to that of another man; to that of my companion, my friend. _Myrt._ That I could be such a precipitant wretch! _Bev._ Pray, no more. _Myrt._ Let me reflect how many friends have died, by the hands of friends, for want of temper; and you must give me leave to say again, and again, how much I am beholden to that superior spirit you have subdued me with. What had become of one of us, or perhaps both, had you been as weak as I was, and as incapable of reason? _Bev._ I congratulate to us both the escape from ourselves, and hope the memory of it will make us dearer friends than ever. _Myrt._ Dear Bevil, your friendly conduct has convinced me that there is nothing manly but what is conducted by reason, and agreeable to the practice of virtue and justice. And yet how many have been sacrificed to that idol, the unreasonable opinion of men! Nay, they are so ridiculous in it, that they often use their swords against each other with dissembled anger and real fear. Betrayed by honour, and compelled by shame, They hazard being, to preserve a name: Nor dare inquire into the dread mistake, Till plunged in sad eternity they wake. [_Exeunt._ SCENE II.--_St. James's Park._ _Enter_ SIR JOHN BEVIL _and_ MR. SEALAND. _Sir J. Bev._ Give me leave, however, Mr. Sealand, as we are upon a treaty for uniting our families, to mention only the business of an ancient house. Genealogy and descent are to be of some consideration in an affair of this sort.