The Love-Chase | Page 7

sir! Do thy errands
smart and well As thou canst crack thy whip! [LASH goes out.] Dear
neighbour Constance, I'll give up horses, dogs, and all for thee!
[Goes out.]
SCENE II.
[Enter WIDOW GREEN and LYDIA.]

W. Green. Lydia, my gloves. If Master Waller calls, I shall be in at
three; and say the same To old Sir William Fondlove. Tarry yet! - What
progress, think you, make I in the heart Of fair young Master Waller?
Gods, my girl, It is a heart to win and man as well! How speed I, think
you? Didst, as I desired, Detain him in my absence when he called,
And, without seeming, sound him touching me?
Lydia. Yes.
W. Green. And effects he me, or not? How guess you? What said he of
me? Looked he balked, or not, To find me not at home? Inquired he
when I would be back, as much he longed to see me? What did he--said
he? Come!--Is he in love, Or like to fall into it? Goes well my game, Or
shall I have my labour for my pains?
Lydia. I think he is in love.--O poor evasion! O to love truth, and yet
not dare to speak it! [Aside.]
W. Green. You think he is in love--I'm sure of it. As well have asked
you has he eyes and ears, And brain and heart to use them? Maids do
throw Trick after trick away, but widows know To play their cards!
How am I looking, Lydia?
Lydia. E'en as you ever look.
W. Green. Handsome, my girl? Eh? Clear in my complexion?
Eh?--brimful Of spirits? not too much of me, nor yet Too
little?--Eh?--A woman worth a man? Look at me, Lydia! Would you
credit, girl, I was a scarecrow before marriage?
Lydia. Nay! -
W. Green. Girl, but I tell thee "yea." That gown of thine - And thou art
slender--would have hung about me! There's something of me now!
good sooth, enough! Lydia, I'm quite contented with myself; I'm just
the thing, methinks, a widow should be. So, Master Waller, you believe,
affects me? But, Lydia, not enough to hook the fish; To prove the
angler's skill, it must be caught; And lovers, Lydia, like the angler's

prey - Which, when he draws it near the landing-place, Takes warning
and runs out the slender line, And with a spring perchance jerks off the
hold When we do fish for them, and hook, and think They are all but in
the creel, will make the dart That sets them free to roam the flood
again!
Lydia. Is't so?
W. Green. Thou'lt find it so, or better luck Than many another maid!
Now mark me, Lydia: Sir William Fondlove fancies me. 'Tis well! I do
not fancy him! What should I do With an old man?--Attend upon the
gout, Or the rheumatics! Wrap me in the cloud Of a darkened
chamber--'stead of shining out, The sun of balls, and routs, and
gala-days! But he affects me, Lydia; so he may! Now take a lesson
from me--Jealousy Had better go with open, naked breast, Than pin or
button with a gem. Less plague, The plague-spot; that doth speedy
make an end One way or t'other, girl. Yet, never love Was warm
without a spice of jealousy. Thy lesson now--Sir William Fondlove's
rich, And riches, though they're paste, yet being many, The jewel love
we often cast away for. I use him but for Master Waller's sake. Dost
like my policy?
Lydia. You will not chide me?
W. Green. Nay, Lydia, I do like to hear thy thoughts, They are such
novel things--plants that do thrive With country air! I marvel still they
flower, And thou so long in town! Speak freely, girl!
Lydia. I cannot think love thrives by artifice, Or can disguise its mood,
and show its face. I would not hide one portion of my heart Where I did
give it and did feel 'twas right, Nor feign a wish, to mask a wish that
was, Howe'er to keep it. For no cause except Myself would I be loved.
What were't to me, My lover valued me the more, the more He saw me
comely in another's eyes, When his alone the vision I would show
Becoming to? I have sought the reason oft, They paint Love as a child,
and still have thought, It was because true love, like infancy, Frank,
trusting, unobservant of its mood, Doth show its wish at once, and
means no more!

W. Green. Thou'lt find out better when thy time doth come. Now
wouldst believe I love not Master Waller? I never knew what love was,
Lydia; That is, as your romances have it. First, I married for a fortune.
Having that, And being freed from him that brought