_Scrub._ Truly I'm afraid so too; for where there's a priest and a woman, there's always a mystery and a riddle--This, I know, that here has been the doctor with a temptation in one hand, and an absolution in the other, and Gipsey has sold herself to the devil; I saw the price paid down, my eyes shall take their oath on't. _Arch._ And is all this bustle about Gipsey? _Scrub._ That's not all; I could hear but a word here and there; but I remember they mentioned a count, a closet, a back door, and a key. _Arch._ The count! did you hear nothing of Mrs. Sullen? _Scrub._ I did hear some word that sounded that way: but whether it was Sullen or Dorinda I could not distinguish. _Arch._ You have told this matter to nobody, brother? _Scrub._ Told! no, sir, I thank you for that; I'm resolved never to speak one word, _pro_ nor _con_, till we have a peace. _Arch._ You are i'the right, brother Scrub; here's a treaty a-foot between the count and the lady.--The priest and the chambermaid are plenipotentiaries----It shall go hard, but I'll find a way to be included in the treaty. Where's the doctor now? _Scrub._ He and Gipsey are this moment devouring my lady's marmalade in the closet. _Aim._ [_From without._] Martin, Martin! _Arch._ I come, sir, I come. _Scrub._ But you forget the other guinea, brother Martin. _Arch._ Here, I give it with all my heart. [_Exit_ ARCHER. _Scrub._ And I take it with all my soul. I'cod, I'll spoil your plotting, Mrs. Gipsey; and if you should set the captain upon me, these two guineas will buy me off. [_Exit_ SCRUB. _Enter_ MRS. SULLEN _and_ DORINDA, _meeting_. _Mrs. Sul._ Well, sister. _Dor._ And well, sister. _Mrs. Sul._ What's become of my lord? _Dor._ What's become of his servant? _Mrs. Sul._ Servant! he's a prettier fellow and a finer gentleman by fifty degrees than his master. _Dor._ O' my conscience, I fancy you could beg that fellow at the gallows' foot. _Mrs. Sul._ O' my conscience, I could, provided I could put a friend of yours in his room. _Dor._ You desired me, sister, to leave you, when you transgressed the bounds of honour. _Mrs. Sul._ Thou dear censorious country girl--What dost mean? You can't think of the man without the bedfellow, I find. _Dor._ I don't find any thing unnatural in that thought. _Mrs. Sul._ How a little love and conversation improve a woman! Why, child, you begin to live--you never spoke before. _Dor._ Because I was never spoke to before: my lord has told me, that I have more wit and beauty than any of my sex; and truly I begin to think the man is sincere. _Mrs. Sul._ You are in the right, Dorinda; pride is the life of a woman, and flattery is our daily bread--But I'll lay you a guinea that I had finer things said to me than you had. _Dor._ Done----What did your fellow say to ye? _Mrs. Sul._ My fellow took the picture of Venus for mine. _Dor._ But my lover took me for Venus herself.