_Bel._ And when you met Lopez, he swallowed all you told him? _Mask._ As greedily, as if it had been a new saint's miracle. _Bel._ I see 'twill spread. _Mask._ And the fame of it will be of use to you in your next amour; for the women, you know, run mad after fortune-tellers and preachers. _Bel._ But for all my bragging, this amour is not yet worn off. I find constancy, and once a night, come naturally upon a man towards thirty; only we set a face on't, and call ourselves inconstant for our reputation. _Mask._ But what say the stars, sir? _Bel._ They move faster than you imagine; for I have got me an argol, and an English almanack, by help of which, in one half hour, I have learned to cant with an indifferent good grace: Conjunction, opposition, trine, square, and sextile, are now no longer bugbears to me, I thank my stars for't. _Enter_ WILDBLOOD. Monsieur Wildblood, in good time! What, you have been taking pains, too, to divulge my talent? _Wild._ So successfully, that shortly there will be no talk in town, but of you only: Another miracle or two, and a sharp sword, and you stand fair for a new prophet. _Bel._ But where did you begin to blow the trumpet? _Wild._ In the gaming-house, where I found most of the town-wits; the prose-wits playing, and the verse-wits rooking. _Bel._ All sorts of gamesters are so superstitious, that I need not doubt of my reception there. _Wild._ From thence I went to the latter end of a comedy, and there whispered it to the next man I knew, who had a woman by him. _Mask._ Nay, then, it went like a train of powder, if once they had it by the end. _Wild._ Like a squib upon a line, i'faith; it ran through one row, and came back upon me in the next. At my going out I met a knot of Spaniards, who were formally listening to one, who was relating it; but he told the story so ridiculously, with his marginal notes upon it, that I was forced to contradict him. _Bel._ 'Twas discreetly done. _Wild._ Ay, for you, but not for me: What, says he, must such Boracho's as you take upon you to vilify a man of science? I tell you, he's of my intimate acquaintance, and I have known him long for a prodigious person.--When I saw my Don so fierce, I thought it not wisdom to quarrel for so slight a matter as your reputation, and so withdrew. _Bel._ A pox of your success! now shall I have my chamber besieged to-morrow morning: There will be no stirring out for me; but I must be fain to take up their questions in a cleft-cane, or a begging-box, as they do charity in prisons. _Wild._ Faith, I cannot help what your learning has brought you to. Go in and study; I foresee you will have but few holidays: In the mean time, I'll not fail to give the world an account of your endowments. Farewell: I'll to the gaming-house. [_Exit_ WILD. _Mask._ O, sir, here is the rarest adventure, and, which is more, come home to you! _Bel._ What is it?