MRS. FRAMPTON 'Tis no such serious matter. It was--Huntingdon. SELBY How have three little syllables pluck'd from me A world of countless hopes!-- [_Aside_.] Evasive Widow. MRS. FRAMPTON How, Sir! I like not this. [_Aside_.] SELBY No, no, I meant Nothing but good to thee. That other woman, How shall I call her but evasive, false, And treacherous?--by the trust I place in thee, Tell me, and tell me truly, was the name As you pronounced it? MRS. FRAMPTON Huntingdon--the name, Which his paternal grandfather assumed, Together with the estates, of a remote Kinsman; but our high-spirited youth-- SELBY Yes-- MRS. FRAMPTON Disdaining For sordid pelf to truck the family honours, At risk of the lost estates, resumed the old style, And answer'd only to the name of-- SELBY What? MRS. FRAMPTON Of Halford-- SELBY A Huntingdon to Halford changed so soon! Why, then I see, a witch hath her good spells, As well as bad, and can by a backward charm Unruffle the foul storm she has just been raising. [_Aside_.] [_He makes the signal._] My frank, fair spoken Widow! let this kiss, Which yet aspires no higher, speak my thanks, Till I can think on greater. _Enter_ LUCY _and_ KATHERINE. MRS. FRAMPTON Interrupted! SELBY My sister here! and see, where with her comes My serpent gliding in an angel's form, To taint the new-born Eden of our joys. Why should we fear them? We'll not stir a foot, Nor coy it for their pleasures. [_He courts the Widow_.] LUCY (_to Katherine_.) This your free, And sweet ingenuous confession, binds me For ever to you; and it shall go hard, But it shall fetch you back your husband's heart, That now seems blindly straying; or at worst, In me you have still a sister.--Some wives, brother, Would think it strange to catch their husbands thus Alone with a trim widow; but your Katherine Is arm'd, I think, with patience. KATHERINE I am fortified With knowledge of self-faults to endure worse wrongs, If they be wrongs, than he can lay upon me; Even to look on, and see him sue in earnest, As now I think he does it but in seeming, To that ill woman. SELBY Good words, gentle Kate, And not a thought irreverent of our Widow. Why, 'twere unmannerly at any time, But most uncourteous on our wedding day, When we should shew most hospitable.--Some wine. [_Wine is brought_.]