Delavil. What says fair Prudentilla? Maids and widows, And we young bachelors, such as indeed Are forced to lie in solitary beds, And sleep without disturbance--we, methinks, Should desire later hours than married wives, That in their amorous arms hug their delights! To often wakings subject, their more haste May better be excused. Prudentilla. How can you, That are, as you confess, a single man, Enter so far into these mystical secrets Of marriage, which as yet you never proved? Delavil. There’s, lady, an instinct innate in man, Which prompts us to the apprehensions Of the uses we were born to; such we are Aptest to learn, ambitious most to know, Of which our chief is marriage. Prudentilla. What you men Most meditate, we women seldom dream of. Delavil. When dream maids most? Prudentilla. When, think you? Delavil. When you lie upon your backs. Come, come; your ear. [_Exeunt_ Delavil _and_ Prudentilla. Young Geraldine. We now are left alone. Wife. Why, say we be, who should be jealous of us? This is not first of many hundred nights That we two have been private: from the first Of our acquaintance, when our tongues but clipped Our mother’s-tongue, and could not speak it plain, We knew each other; as in stature, so Increased our sweet society; since your travel, And my late marriage, through my husband’s love, Midnight hath been as mid-day, and my bed-chamber As free to you as your own father’s house, And you as welcome to’t. Young Geraldine. I must confess It is in you your noble courtesy, In him a more than common confidence, And in this age can scarce find precedent. Wife. Most true; it is withal an argument That both our virtues are so deep impressed In his good thoughts, he knows we cannot err. Young Geraldine. A villain were he to deceive such trust, Or, were there one, a much worse character. Wife. And she no less, whom either beauty, youth, Time, place, or opportunity could tempt To injure such a husband. Young Geraldine. You deserve, Even for his sake, to be for ever young; And he, for yours, to have his youth renewed, So mutual is your true conjugal love; Yet, had the Fates so pleased-- Wife. I know your meaning. It was once voiced that we two should have matched; The world so thought, and many tongues so spake; But Heaven hath now disposed us otherways; And being as it is, (a thing in me Which, I protest, was never wished nor sought), Now done, I not repent it. Young Geraldine. In those times, Of all the treasures of my hopes and love, You were the exchequer, they were stored in you; And, had not my unfortunate travel crossed them, They had been here reserved still. Wife. Troth, they had; I should have been your trusty treasurer.