FAULKLAND Well, then--shall I own to you that my joy at hearing of your health and arrival here, by your neighbour Acres, was somewhat damped by his dwelling much on the high spirits you had enjoyed in Devonshire--on your mirth--your singing--dancing, and I know not what! For such is my temper, Julia, that I should regard every mirthful moment in your absence as a treason to constancy. The mutual tear that steals down the cheek of parting lovers is a compact, that no smile shall live there till they meet again. JULIA Must I never cease to tax my Faulkland with this teasing minute caprice? Can the idle reports of a silly boor weigh in your breast against my tried affections? FAULKLAND They have no weight with me, Julia: No, no--I am happy if you have been so--yet only say, that you did not sing with mirth--say that you thought of Faulkland in the dance. JULIA I never can be happy in your absence. If I wear a countenance of content, it is to show that my mind holds no doubt of my Faulkland's truth. If I seemed sad, it were to make malice triumph; and say, that I had fixed my heart on one, who left me to lament his roving, and my own credulity. Believe me, Faulkland, I mean not to upbraid you, when I say, that I have often dressed sorrow in smiles, lest my friends should guess whose unkindness had caused my tears. FAULKLAND You were ever all goodness to me. Oh, I am a brute, when I but admit a doubt of your true constancy! JULIA If ever without such cause from you, as I will not suppose possible, you find my affections veering but a point, may I become a proverbial scoff for levity and base ingratitude. FAULKLAND Ah! Julia, that last word is grating to me. I would I had no title to your gratitude! Search your heart, Julia; perhaps what you have mistaken for love, is but the warm effusion of a too thankful heart. JULIA For what quality must I love you? FAULKLAND For no quality! To regard me for any quality of mind or understanding, were only to esteem me. And for person--I have often wished myself deformed, to be convinced that I owed no obligation there for any part of your affection. JULIA Where nature has bestowed a show of nice attention in the features of a man, he should laugh at it as misplaced. I have seen men, who in this vain article, perhaps, might rank above you; but my heart has never asked my eyes if it were so or not. FAULKLAND Now this is not well from you, Julia--I despise person in a man--yet if you loved me as I wish, though I were an AEthiop, you'd think none so fair. JULIA I see you are determined to be unkind! The contract which my poor father bound us in gives you more than a lover's privilege.