_Wood._ Nothing, but the love I bear thy mistress, could keep me in the house with such a fury. When will the bright nymph appear? _Jud._ Immediately; I hear her coming. _Wood._ That I could find her coming, Mrs Judith! _Enter_ MRS BRAINSICK. You have made me languish in expectation, madam. Was it nothing, do you think, to be so near a happiness, with violent desires, and to be delayed? _Mrs Brain._ Is it nothing, do you think, for a woman of honour, to overcome the ties of virtue and reputation; to do that for you, which I thought I should never have ventured for the sake of any man? _Wood._ But my comfort is, that love has overcome. Your honour is, in other words, but your good repute; and 'tis my part to take care of that: for the fountain of a woman's honour is in the lover, as that of the subject is in the king. _Mrs Brain._ You had concluded well, if you had been my husband: you know where our subjection lies. _Wood._ But cannot I be yours without a priest? They were cunning people, doubtless, who began that trade; to have a double hank upon us, for two worlds: that no pleasure here, or hereafter, should be had, without a bribe to them. _Mrs Brain._ Well, I'm resolved, I'll read, against the next time I see you; for the truth is, I am not very well prepared with arguments for marriage; meanwhile, farewell. _Wood._ I stand corrected; you have reason indeed to go, if I can use my time no better: We'll withdraw if you please, and dispute the rest within. _Mrs Brain._ Perhaps, I meant not so. _Wood,_ I understand your meaning at your eyes. You'll watch, Judith? _Mrs Brain._ Nay, if that were all, I expect not my husband till to-morrow. The truth is, he is so oddly humoured, that, if I were ill inclined, it would half justify a woman; he's such a kind of man! _Wood._ Or, if he be not, well make him such a kind of man. _Mrs Brain._ So fantastical, so musical, his talk all rapture, and half nonsense: like a clock out of order, set him a-going, and he strikes eternally. Besides, he thinks me such a fool, that I could half resolve to revenge myself, in justification of my wit. _Wood._ Come, come, no half resolutions among lovers; I'll hear no more of him, till I have revenged you fully. Go out and watch, Judith. [_Exit_ JUDITH. _Mrs Brain._ Yet, I could say, in my defence, that my friends married me to him against my will. _Wood._ Then let us put your friends, too, into the quarrel: it shall go hard, but I'll give you a revenge for them. _Enter_ JUDITH _again, hastily._ How now? what's the matter? _Mrs Brain._ Can'st thou not speak? hast thou seen a ghost?--As I live, she signs horns! that must be for my husband: he's returned. [JUDITH _looks ghastly, and signs horns._ _Jud._ I would have told you so, if I could have spoken for fear.