Scene XII.

Love for Love

by William Congreve

[To them] MRS FORESIGHT.

MRS FORESIGHT
Husband, will you go to bed? It's ten
a'clock. Mr Scandal, your servant.

SCANDAL
Pox on her, she has interrupted my design--but I
must work her into the project. You keep early hours, madam.

MRS FORESIGHT
Mr Foresight is punctual; we sit up after
him.

FORESIGHT
My dear, pray lend me your glass, your little
looking-glass.

SCANDAL
Pray lend it him, madam. I'll tell you the
reason.

[She gives him the glass: SCANDAL and she whisper.] My passion
for you is grown so violent, that I am no longer master of myself. I
was interrupted in the morning, when you had charity enough to give
me your attention, and I had hopes of finding another opportunity of
explaining myself to you, but was disappointed all this day; and the
uneasiness that has attended me ever since brings me now hither at
this unseasonable hour.

MRS FORESIGHT
Was there ever such impudence, to make love to
me before my husband's face? I'll swear I'll tell him.

SCANDAL
Do. I'll die a martyr rather than disclaim my
passion. But come a little farther this way, and I'll tell you what
project I had to get him out of the way; that I might have an
opportunity of waiting upon you. [Whisper. FORESIGHT looking in the
glass.]

FORESIGHT
I do not see any revolution here; methinks I look
with a serene and benign aspect--pale, a little pale--but the roses
of these cheeks have been gathered many years;--ha! I do not like
that sudden flushing. Gone already! hem, hem, hem! faintish. My
heart is pretty good; yet it beats; and my pulses, ha!--I have
none--mercy on me--hum. Yes, here they are--gallop, gallop, gallop,
gallop, gallop, gallop, hey! Whither will they hurry me? Now
they're gone again. And now I'm faint again, and pale again, and
hem! and my hem! breath, hem! grows short; hem! hem! he, he, hem!

SCANDAL
It takes: pursue it in the name of love and
pleasure.

MRS FORESIGHT
How do you do, Mr Foresight!

FORESIGHT
Hum, not so well as I thought I was. Lend me your
hand.

SCANDAL
Look you there now. Your lady says your sleep has
been unquiet of late.

FORESIGHT
Very likely.

MRS FORESIGHT
Oh, mighty restless, but I was afraid to tell
him so. He has been subject to talking and starting.

SCANDAL
And did not use to be so?

MRS FORESIGHT
Never, never, till within these three nights;
I cannot say that he has once broken my rest since we have been
married.

FORESIGHT
I will go to bed.

SCANDAL
Do so, Mr Foresight, and say your prayers. He looks
better than he did.

MRS FORESIGHT
Nurse, nurse!

FORESIGHT
Do you think so, Mr Scandal?

SCANDAL
Yes, yes. I hope this will be gone by morning,
taking it in time.

FORESIGHT
I hope so.