Eu. Get you gone now, and slight a Husband, who if he can get Children jesting, what will he do if he sets about it in earnest?

Xa. I suspect that I am now with Child by him again.

Eu. O brave! to a good Soil, here’s a good Ploughman to till it.

Xa. As to this Affair, he’s better than I wish he was.

Eu. Very few Wives have this Complaint to make:  But, I suppose, the Marriage Contract was made between you, before this happened.

Xa. It was made.

Eu. Then the Sin was so much the less.  Is your Child a Boy?

Xa. It is.

Eu. That will reconcile you both, if you will but qualify yourself a little for it.  What Sort of Character do your Husband’s Companions give him?  And what Company does he keep when he is abroad?

Xa. They give him the Character of an exceeding good-humour’d, courteous, generous Man, and a true Friend to his Friend.

Eu. These Things give me great Hopes, that he will become such as we would have him be.

Xa. But I am the only Person he is not so to.

Eu. Do you but be to him what I have told you, and if he does not begin to be so to you, instead of Eulalia (a good Speaker), call me Pseudolalia (a prating Liar); and besides, consider this, that he’s but a young Man yet, I believe not above twenty-four Years of Age, and does not yet know what it is to be the Master of a Family.  You must never think of a Divorce now.

Xa. But I have thought on it a great many Times.

Eu. But if ever that Thought comes into your Mind again, first of all consider with yourself, what an insignificant Figure a Woman makes when she is parted from her Husband.  It is the greatest Glory of a Matron, to be obedient to her Husband.  This Nature dictates, and it is the Will of God, that the Woman should wholly depend upon her Husband:  Only think, as it really is, he is your Husband, you cannot have another.  Then call to Mind that the little Boy belongs to you both.  What would you do with him?  Would you take him away with you?  Then will you defraud your Husband of his own.  Will you leave him to him?  Then you will deprive yourself of that, than which nothing is more dear.  Last of all, tell me, is there any Body that wishes you ill?

Xa. I have a Step-Mother, and a Mother-in-Law, as like her as may be.

Eu. And they wish you ill, do they?

Xa. They wish me in my Grave.

Eu. Then think of them likewise.  What can you be able to do, that would be more grateful to them, than if they should see you divorc’d from your Husband; a Widow, nay, to live, a Widow bewitcht, worse than a Widow?  For Widows may marry again.

Xa. I approve of your Advice; but can’t bear the Thoughts of being always a Slave.