MRS. MAR. I loathe the name of love after such usage; and next to the guilt with which you would asperse me, I scorn you most. Farewell. FAIN. Nay, we must not part thus. MRS. MAR. Let me go. FAIN. Come, I’m sorry. MRS. MAR. I care not. Let me go. Break my hands, do—I’d leave ’em to get loose. FAIN. I would not hurt you for the world. Have I no other hold to keep you here? MRS. MAR. Well, I have deserved it all. FAIN. You know I love you. MRS. MAR. Poor dissembling! Oh, that—well, it is not yet— FAIN. What? What is it not? What is it not yet? It is not yet too late— MRS. MAR. No, it is not yet too late—I have that comfort. FAIN. It is, to love another. MRS. MAR. But not to loathe, detest, abhor mankind, myself, and the whole treacherous world. FAIN. Nay, this is extravagance. Come, I ask your pardon. No tears—I was to blame, I could not love you and be easy in my doubts. Pray forbear—I believe you; I’m convinced I’ve done you wrong; and any way, every way will make amends: I’ll hate my wife yet more, damn her, I’ll part with her, rob her of all she’s worth, and we’ll retire somewhere, anywhere, to another world; I’ll marry thee—be pacified.—’Sdeath, they come: hide your face, your tears. You have a mask: wear it a moment. This way, this way: be persuaded. SCENE IV. MIRABELL _and_ MRS. FAINALL. MRS. FAIN. They are here yet. MIRA. They are turning into the other walk. MRS. FAIN. While I only hated my husband, I could bear to see him; but since I have despised him, he’s too offensive. MIRA. Oh, you should hate with prudence. MRS. FAIN. Yes, for I have loved with indiscretion. MIRA. You should have just so much disgust for your husband as may be sufficient to make you relish your lover. MRS. FAIN. You have been the cause that I have loved without bounds, and would you set limits to that aversion of which you have been the occasion? Why did you make me marry this man? MIRA. Why do we daily commit disagreeable and dangerous actions? To save that idol, reputation. If the familiarities of our loves had produced that consequence of which you were apprehensive, where could you have fixed a father’s name with credit but on a husband? I knew Fainall to be a man lavish of his morals, an interested and professing friend, a false and a designing lover, yet one whose wit and outward fair behaviour have gained a reputation with the town, enough to make that woman stand excused who has suffered herself to be won by his addresses. A better man ought not to have been sacrificed to the occasion; a worse had not answered to the purpose. When you are weary of him you know your remedy. MRS. FAIN. I ought to stand in some degree of credit with you, Mirabell. MIRA. In justice to you, I have made you privy to my whole design, and put it in your power to ruin or advance my fortune. MRS. FAIN. Whom have you instructed to represent your pretended uncle?