ELI. (_kneeling to her father_). Ah! my father, be more merciful, I beseech you, and do not let your paternal authority drive matters to extremes. Do not suffer yourself to be carried away by the first outburst of your anger, but give yourself time to consider what you do. Take the trouble of inquiring about him whose conduct has offended you. He is not what you imagine, and you will think it less strange that I should have given myself to him, when you know that without him you would long ago have lost me for ever. Yes, father, it is he who saved me from the great danger I ran in the waters, and to whom you owe the life of that very daughter who ... HAR. All this is nothing; and it would have been much better for me if he had suffered you to be drowned rather than do what he has done. ELI. My father, I beseech you, in the name of paternal love, grant me ... HAR. No, no. I will hear nothing, and justice must have its course. JAC. (_aside_). You shall pay me for the blows you gave me. FRO. What a perplexing state of affairs! SCENE V.--ANSELME, HARPAGON, ÉLISE, MARIANNE, FROSINE, VALÈRE, THE POLICE OFFICER, MASTER JACQUES. ANS. What can have happened, Mr. Harpagon? You are quite upset. HAR. Ah, Mr. Anselme, you see in me the most unfortunate of men; and you can never imagine what vexation and disorder is connected with the contract you have come to sign! I am attacked in my property; I am attacked in my honour; and you see there a scoundrel and a wretch who has violated the most sacred rights, who has introduced himself into my house as a servant in order to steal my money, and seduce my daughter. VAL. Who ever thought of your money about which you rave? HAR. Yes; they have given each other a promise of marriage. This insult concerns you, Mr. Anselme; and it is you who ought to be plaintiff against him, and who at your own expense ought to prosecute him to the utmost, in order to be revenged. ANS. It is not my intention to force anybody to marry me, and to lay claim to a heart which has already bestowed itself; but as far as your interests are concerned, I am ready to espouse them as if they were my own. HAR. This is the gentleman, an honest commissary, who has promised that he will omit nothing of what concerns the duties of his office. (_To the_ OFFICER, _showing_ VALÈRE) Charge him, Sir, as he ought to be, and make matters very criminal. VAL. I do not see what crime they can make of my passion for your daughter, nor the punishment you think I ought to be condemned to for our engagement; when it is known who I am ... HAR. I don't care a pin for all those stories, and the world is full, nowadays, of those pretenders to nobility, of those impostors, who take advantage of their obscurity and deck themselves out insolently with the first illustrious name that comes into their head. VAL. Know that I am too upright to adorn myself with a name which is not mine, and that all Naples can bear testimony to my birth!