ERG. That is just what is in your favour. Your love ought to expect a great deal from these circumstances. Know, for your encouragement, that a woman watched is half-won, and that the gloomy ill-temper of husbands and fathers has always promoted the affairs of the gallant. I intrigue very little; for that is not one of my accomplishments. I do not pretend to be a gallant; but I have served a score of such sportsmen, who often used to tell me that it was their greatest delight to meet with churlish husbands, who never come home without scolding,--downright brutes, who, without rhyme or reason, criticise the conduct of their wives in everything, and, proudly assuming the authority of a husband, quarrel with them before the eyes of their admirers. "One knows," they would say, "how to take advantage of this. The lady's indignation at this kind of outrage, on the one hand, and the considerate compassion of the lover, on the other, afford an opportunity for pushing matters far enough." In a word, the surliness of Isabella's guardian is a circumstance sufficiently favourable for you. VAL. But I could never find one moment to speak to her in the four months that I have ardently loved her. ERG. Love quickens people's wits, though it has little effect on yours. If I had been... VAL. Why, what could you have done? For one never sees her without that brute; in the house there are neither maids nor men-servants whom I might influence to assist me by the alluring temptation of some reward. ERG. Then she does not yet know that you love her? VAL. It is a point on which I am not informed. Wherever the churl took this fair one, she always saw me like a shadow behind her; my looks daily tried to explain to her the violence of my love. My eyes have spoken much; but who can tell whether, after all, their language could be understood? ERG. It is true that this language may sometimes prove obscure, if it have not writing or speech for its interpreter. VAL. What am I to do to rid myself of this vast difficulty, and to learn whether the fair one has perceived that I love her? Tell me some means or other. ERG. That is what we have to discover. Let us go in for a while--the better to think over it. ACT II. SCENE I.--ISABELLA, SGANARELLE. SGAN. That will do; I know the house, and the person, simply from the description you have given me. ISA. (_Aside_). Heaven, be propitious, and favour to-day the artful contrivance of an innocent love! SGAN. Do you say they have told you that his name is Valère? ISA. Yes. SGAN. That will do; do not make yourself uneasy about it. Go inside, and leave me to act. I am going at once to talk to this young madcap. ISA. (_As she goes in_). For a girl, I am planning a pretty bold scheme. But the unreasonable severity with which I am treated will be my excuse to every right mind. SCENE II.--SGANARELLE, _alone_.