CEL. Can you advise me to act so wickedly as to forsake Lelio and take up with this ill-shaped fellow? MAID. Upon my word, your Lelio is a mere fool to stay away the very time he is wanted; his long absence makes me very much suspect some change in his affection. GEL. (_showing her the portrait of Lelio_). Oh! do not distress me by such dire forebodings! Observe carefully the features of his face; they swear to me an eternal affection; after all, I would not willingly believe them to tell a falsehood, but that he is such as he is here limned by art, and that his affection for me remains unchanged. MAID. To be sure, these features denote a deserving lover, whom you are right to regard tenderly. CEL. And yet I must--Ah! support me. (_She lets fall the portrait of Lelio_.) MAID. Madam, what is the cause of... Heavens! she swoons. Oh! make haste! help! help! SCENE III.--CELIA, SGANARELLE, CELIA'S MAID. SGAN. What is the matter? I am here. MAID. My lady is dying. SGAN. What! is that all? You made such a noise, I thought the world was at an end. Let us see, however. Madam, are you dead? Um! she does not say one word. MAID. I shall fetch somebody to carry her in; be kind enough to hold her so long. SCENE IV.--CELIA, SGANARELLE, SGANARELLE'S WIFE. SGAN. (_passing his hand over Celia's bosom_). She is cold all over, and I do not know what to say to it. Let me draw a little nearer and try whether she breathes or not. Upon my word, I cannot tell, but I perceive still some signs of life. SGAN.'S WIFE, (_looking from the window_). Ah! what do I see? My husband, holding in his arms... But I shall go down; he is false to me most certainly; I should be glad to catch him. SGAN. She must be assisted very quickly; she would certainly be in the wrong to die. A journey to another world is very foolish, so long as a body is able to stay in this. (_He carries her in_). SCENE V.--SGANARELLE'S WIFE, _alone_. He has suddenly left this spot; his flight has disappointed my curiosity; but I doubt no longer that he is unfaithful to me; the little I have seen sufficiently proves it. I am no longer astonished that he returns my modest love with strange coldness; the ungrateful wretch reserves his caresses for others, and starves me in order to feed their pleasures. This is the common way of husbands; they become indifferent to what is lawful; at the beginning they do wonders, and seem to be very much in love with us, but the wretches soon grow weary of our fondness, and carry elsewhere what is due to us alone. Oh! how it vexes me that the law will not permit us to change our husband as we do our linen! That would be very convenient; and, troth, I know some women whom it would please as much as myself. (_Taking up the picture which Celia had let fall_). But what a pretty thing has fortune sent me here; the enamel of it is most beautiful, the workmanship delightful; let me open it?