Scene X.

Love for Love

by William Congreve

VALENTINE, SCANDAL.

SCANDAL
Pox on him, I'll be gone.

VALENTINE
No, prithee stay: Tattle and you should never be
asunder; you are light and shadow, and show one another; he is
perfectly thy reverse both in humour and understanding; and as you
set up for defamation, he is a mender of reputations.

SCANDAL
A mender of reputations! Ay, just as he is a keeper
of secrets, another virtue that he sets up for in the same manner.
For the rogue will speak aloud in the posture of a whisper, and deny
a woman's name while he gives you the marks of her person. He will
forswear receiving a letter from her, and at the same time show you
her hand in the superscription: and yet perhaps he has counterfeited
the hand too, and sworn to a truth; but he hopes not to be believed,
and refuses the reputation of a lady's favour, as a Doctor says no to
a Bishopric only that it may be granted him. In short, he is public
professor of secrecy, and makes proclamation that he holds private
intelligence.--He's here.