Cel.  Nay, i’faith I am got betwixt you and home; you are my prisoner, lady bright, till you resolve me one question.

[She makes signs she is dumb.]

Pox, I think, she’s dumb:  what a vengeance dost thou at court, with such a rare face, without a tongue to answer to a kind question?  Art thou dumb indeed? then thou canst tell no tales—­

[Goes to kiss her.

Flo.  Hold, hold, you are not mad!

Cel.  Oh, my miss in a mask! have you found your tongue?

Flo.  ’Twas time, I think; what had become of me if I had not?

Cel.  Me thinks your lips had done as well.

Flo.  Ay, if my mask had been over ’em, as it was when you met me in the walks.

Cel.  Well; will you believe me another time?  Did not I say, you were infinitely handsome? they may talk of Florimel, if they will, but, i’faith, she must come short of you.

Flo.  Have you seen her, then?

Cel.  I look’d a little that way, but I had soon enough of her; she is not to be seen twice without a surfeit.

Flo.  However, you are beholden to her; they say she loves you.

Cel.  By fate she shan’t love me:  I have told her a piece of my mind already?  Pox o’ these coming women:  They set a man to dinner, before he has an appetite. [FLAVIA at the door.

Fla.  Florimel, you are call’d within—­[Exit.

Cel.  I hope in the lord, you are not Florimel!

Flo.  Ev’n she, at your service; the same kind and coming Florimel, you have described.

Cel.  Why then we are agreed already:  I am as kind and coming as you, for the heart of you:  I knew, at first, we two were good for nothing but one another.

Flo.  But, without raillery, are you in love?

Cel.  So horribly much, that, contrary to my own maxims, I think, in my conscience, I could marry you.

Flo.  No, no, ’tis not come to that yet; but if you are really in love, you have done me the greatest pleasure in the world.

Cel.  That pleasure, and a better too, I have in store for you.

Flo.  This animal, call’d a lover, I have long’d to see these two years.

Cel.  Sure you walk’d with your mask on all the while; for if you had been seen, you could not have been without your wish.

Flo.  I warrant, you mean an ordinary whining lover; but I must have other proofs of love, ere I believe it.

Cel.  You shall have the best that I can give you.

Flo.  I would have a lover, that, if need be, should hang himself, drown himself, break his neck, poison himself, for very despair:  He, that will scruple this, is an impudent fellow if he says he is in love.

Cel.  Pray, madam, which of these four things would you have your lover to do?  For a man’s but a man; he cannot hang, and drown, and break his neck, and poison himself, all together.