_Char. Elaria_ false! take heed, sure her nice Virtue Is proof against the Vices of her Sex. Say rather _Bellemante_, She who by Nature’s light and wavering. The Town contains not such a false Impertinent. This Evening I surpriz’d her in her Chamber, Writing of Verses, and between her Lines Some Spark had newly pen’d his proper Stuff. Curse of the Jilt, I’ll be her Fool no more. _Har_. I doubt you are mistaken in that, Sir, for ‘twas I was the Spark that writ the proper Stuff To do you service. _Char_. Thou! _Scar_. Ay, we that spend our Lives and Fortunes here to serve you,--to be us’d like Pimps and Scoundrels. Come, Sir, satisfy him who ‘twas was hid i’th’ Closet, when he came in and found you. _Cin_. Ha,--is’t possible? Was it _Charmante_? _Char_. Was it you, _Cinthio_? Pox on’t, what Fools are we, we cou’d not know one another by Instinct? _Scar_. Well, well, dispute no more this clear Case, but let’s hasten to your Mistresses. _Cin_. I’m asham’d to appear before _Elaria_. _Char_. And I to _Bellemante_. _Scar_. Come, come, take Heart of Grace; pull your Hats down over your Eyes; put your Arms across; sigh and look scurvily; your simple Looks are ever a Token of Repentance: come--come along. [_Exeunt Omnes_. SCENE III. _Changes to the Inside of the House. The Front of the Scene is only a Curtain or Hangings, to be drawn up at Pleasure_. _Enter_ Elaria, Bellemante, Mopsophil, Florinda, _and Ladies, dress’d in Masking Habits_. _Ela_. I am extremely pleas’d with these Habits, Cousin. _Bell_. They are _à la Gothic_ and _Uncommune_. _Flor_. Your Lovers have a very good Fancy, Cousin, I long to see ‘em. _Ela_. And so do I. I wonder _Scaramouch_ stays so, and what Success he has. _Bell_. You have no cause to doubt, you can so easily acquit your self; but I, what shall I do? who can no more imagine who shou’d write those Boremes, than who I shall love next, if I break off with _Charmante_. _Flor_. If he be a Man of Honour, Cousin, when a Maid protests her Innocence-- _Bell_. Ay, but he’s a Man of Wit too, Cousin, and knows when Women protest most, they likely lye most. _Ela_. Most commonly, for Truth needs no asseveration. _Bell_. That’s according to the Disposition of your Lover, for some believe you most, when you most abuse and cheat ‘em; some are so obstinate, they wou’d damn a Woman with Protesting, before she can convince ‘em. _Ela_. Such a one is not worth convincing, I wou’d not make the World wise at the expence of a Virtue. _Bell_. Nay, he shall e’en remain as Heaven made him for me, since there are Men enough for all uses. _Enter_ Charmante _and_ Cinthio, _dress’d in their Gothic Habits_, Scaramouch, Harlequin _and Musick_. Charmante _and_ Cinthio _kneel_. _Cin_. Can you forgive us? [Elaria _takes him up_. _Bell_. That, _Cinthio_, you’re convinc’d, I do not wonder; but how _Charmante_ is inspir’d, I know not.