_Hip._ For, I say, you are to be my husband, and you say husbands must be wittols, and some strange things to boot. _Ger._ Well, I will take my fortune. _Hip._ But have a care, rash man. _Ger._ I will venture. _Hip._ At your peril; remember I wished you to have a care: forewarned, fore-armed. _Prue._ Indeed now, that's fair; for most men are fore-armed before they are warned. _Hip._ Plain dealing is some kind of honesty however, and few women would have said so much. _Ger._ None but those who would delight in a husband's jealousy, as the proof of his love and her honour. _Hip._ Hold, sir, let us have a good understanding betwixt one another at first, that we may be long friends. I differ from you in the point; for a husband's jealousy, which cunning men would pass upon their wives for a compliment, is the worst can be made 'em; for indeed it is a compliment to their beauty, but an affront to their honour. _Ger._ But madam-- _Hip._ So that upon the whole matter I conclude, jealousy in a gallant is humble true love, and the height of respect, and only an undervaluing of himself to overvalue her; but in a husband 'tis arrant sauciness, cowardice, and ill-breeding, and not to be suffered. _Ger._ I stand corrected, gracious miss. _Hip._ Well, but have you brought the gentlemen fiddlers with you, as I desired? _Ger._ They are below. _Hip._ Are they armed well? _Ger._ Yes, they have instruments too that are not of wood; but what will you do with them? _Hip._ What did you think I intended to do with them? when I whispered you to bring gentlemen of your acquaintance instead of fiddlers, as my father desired you to bring, pray what did you think I intended? _Ger._ Faith, e'en to make fools of the gentlemen fiddlers, as you had done of your gentleman dancing-master. _Hip._ I intended 'em for our guard and defence against my father's Spanish and Guinea force, when we were to make our retreat from hence; and to help us to take the keys from my aunt, who has been the watchful porter of this house this twelve-month; and this design (if your heart do not fail you) we will put in execution as soon as you have given your friends below instructions. _Ger._ Are you sure your heart will stand right still? You flinched last night, when I little expected it, I am sure. _Hip._ The time last night was not so proper for us as now, for reasons I will give you. But besides that, I confess I had a mind to try whether your interest did not sway you more than your love; whether the twelve hundred pounds a-year I told you of had not made a greater impression in your heart than Hippolita: but finding it otherwise--yet hold, perhaps upon consideration you are grown wiser; can you yet, as I said, be so desperate, so out of fashion, as to steal a woman with nothing? _Ger._ With you I can want nothing, nor can be made by anything more rich or happy.