SELBY I am not so ill a guesser, Mrs. Frampton, Not to conjecture, that some passages In your unfinished story, rightly interpreted, Glanced at my bosom's peace; You knew my wife? MRS. FRAMPTON Even from her earliest school-days.--What of that? Or how is she concerned in my fine riddles, Framed for the hour's amusement? SELBY By my _hopes_ Of my new interest conceived in you, And by the honest passion of my heart, Which not obliquely I to you did hint; Come from the clouds of misty allegory, And in plain language let me hear the worst. Stand I disgraced or no? MRS. FRAMPTON Then, by _my_ hopes Of my new interest conceiv'd in you, And by the kindling passion in _my_ breast, Which through my riddles you had almost read, Adjured so strongly, I will tell you all. In her school years, then bordering on fifteen, Or haply not much past, she loved a youth-- SELBY My most ingenuous Widow-- MRS. FRAMPTON Met him oft By stealth, where I still of the party was-- SELBY Prime confidant to all the school, I warrant, And general go-between-- [_Aside_.] MRS. FRAMPTON One morn he came In breathless haste. "The ship was under sail, Or in few hours would be, that must convey Him and his destinies to barbarous shores, Where, should he perish by inglorious hands, It would be consolation in his death To have call'd his Katherine _his_." SELBY Thus far the story Tallies with what I hoped. [_Aside_.] MRS. FRAMPTON Wavering between The doubt of doing wrong, and losing him; And my dissuasions not o'er hotly urged, Whom he had flatter'd with the bride-maid's part;-- SELBY I owe my subtle Widow, then, for this. [_Aside_.] MRS. FRAMPTON Briefly, we went to church. The ceremony Scarcely was huddled over, and the ring Yet cold upon her finger, when they parted-- He to his ship; and we to school got back, Scarce miss'd, before the dinner-bell could ring. SELBY And from that hour-- MRS. FRAMPTON Nor sight, nor news of him, For aught that I could hear, she e'er obtain'd. SELBY Like to a man that hovers in suspense Over a letter just receiv'd, on which The black seal hath impress'd its ominous token, Whether to open it or no, so I Suspended stand, whether to press my fate Further, or check ill curiosity That tempts me to more loss.--The name, the name Of this fine youth? MRS. FRAMPTON What boots it, if 'twere told? SELBY Now, by our loves, And by my hopes of happier wedlocks, some day To be accomplish'd, give me his name!