_Lor._ Not absolutely slain, I must confess; but I am drawing on apace: you have a dangerous tongue in your head, I can tell you that; and if your eyes prove of as killing metal, there is but one way with me. Let me see you, for the safeguard of my honour; 'tis but decent the cannon should be drawn down upon me before I yield. _Elv._ What a terrible similitude have you made, colonel, to shew that you are inclining to the wars? I could answer you with another in my profession: Suppose you were in want of money, would you not be glad to take a sum upon content in a sealed bag, without peeping?--but, however, I will not stand with you for a sample. [_Lifts up her veil._ _Lor._ What eyes were there! how keen their glances! you do well to keep them veiled; they are too sharp to be trusted out of the scabbard. _Elv._ Perhaps now, you may accuse my forwardness; but this day of jubilee is the only time of freedom I have had; and there is nothing so extravagant as a prisoner, when he gets loose a little, and is immediately to return into his fetters. _Lor._ To confess freely to you, madam, I was never in love with less than your whole sex before; but now I have seen you, I am in the direct road of languishing and sighing; and, if love goes on as it begins, for aught I know, by to-morrow morning you may hear of me in rhyme and sonnet. I tell you truly, I do not like these symptoms in myself. Perhaps I may go shufflingly at first; for I was never before walked in trammels; yet, I shall drudge and moil at constancy, till I have worn off the hitching in my pace. _Elv._ Oh, sir, there are arts to reclaim the wildest men, as there are to make spaniels fetch and carry: chide them often, and feed them seldom. Now I know your temper, you may thank yourself, if you are kept to hard meat. You are in for years, if you make love to me. _Lor._ I hate a formal obligation with an _Anno Domini_ at end on't; there may be an evil meaning in the word years, called matrimony. _Elv._ I can easily rid you of that fear: I wish I could rid myself as easily of the bondage. _Lor._ Then you are married? _Elv._ If a covetous, and a jealous, and an old man be a husband. _Lor._ Three as good qualities for my purpose as I could wish: now love be praised! _Enter_ ELVIRA'S _Duenna, and whispers to her._ _Elv._ [_Aside._] If I get not home before my husband, I shall be ruined. [_To him._] I dare not stay to tell you where. Farewell!--Could I once more-- [_Exit._ _Lor._ This is unconscionable dealing; to be made a slave, and know not whose livery I wear. Who have we yonder? _Enter_ GOMEZ. By that shambling in his walk, it should be my rich old banker, Gomez, whom I knew at Barcelona: As I live 'tis he!--What, old Mammon here! [_To_ GOMEZ. _Gom._ How! young Beelzebub?