_L. Fid._ No; for the vain fops will take up druggets, and embroider 'em. But I wonder at the depraved appetites of witty men; they use to be out of the common road, and hate imitation. Pray tell me, beast, when you were a man, why you rather chose to club with a multitude in a common house for an entertainment, than to be the only guest at a good table. _Horn._ Why, faith, ceremony and expectation are unsufferable to those that are sharp bent. People always eat with the best stomach at an ordinary, where every man is snatching for the best bit. _L. Fid._ Though he get a cut over the fingers.--But I have heard, that people eat most heartily of another man's meat, that is, what they do not pay for. _Horn._ When they are sure of their welcome and freedom; for ceremony in love and eating is as ridiculous as in fighting: falling on briskly is all should be done on those occasions. _L. Fid._ Well then, let me tell you, sir, there is nowhere more freedom than in our houses; and we take freedom from a young person as a sign of good breeding; and a person may be as free as he pleases with us, as frolic, as gamesome, as wild as he will. _Horn._ Han't I heard you all declaim against wild men? _L. Fid._ Yes; but for all that, we think wildness in a man as desirable a quality as in a duck or rabbit: a tame man! foh! _Horn._ I know not, but your reputations frightened me as much as your faces invited me. _L. Fid._ Our reputation! Lord, why should you not think that we women make use of our reputation, as you men of yours, only to deceive the world with less suspicion? Our virtue is like the statesman's religion, the quaker's word, the gamester's oath, and the great man's honour; but to cheat those that trust us. _Mrs. Squeam._ And that demureness, coyness, and modesty, that you see in our faces in the boxes at plays, is as much a sign of a kind woman, as a vizard-mask in the pit. _Mrs. Dain._ For, I assure you, women are least masked when they have the velvet vizard on. _L. Fid._ You would have found us modest women in our denials only. _Mrs. Squeam._ Our bashfulness is only the reflection of the men's. _Mrs. Dain._ We blush when they are shamefaced. _Horn._ I beg your pardon, ladies, I was deceived in you devilishly. But why that mighty pretence to honour? _L. Fid._ We have told you; but sometimes 'twas for the same reason you men pretend business often, to avoid ill company, to enjoy the better and more privately those you love. _Horn._ But why would you ne'er give a friend a wink then? _L. Fid._ Faith, your reputation frightened us, as much as ours did you, you were so notoriously lewd. _Horn._ And you so seemingly honest. _L. Fid._ Was that all that deterred you? _Horn._ And so expensive--you allow freedom, you say. _L. Fid._ Ay, ay. _Horn._ That I was afraid of losing my little money, as well as my little time, both which my other pleasures required.