Part 8 (2/2)

SGAN. (_To Valere_): I pity your misfortune, but...

VAL. No, you will hear no complaint from me. The lady a.s.suredly does us both justice, and I shall endeavour to satisfy her wishes. Farewell.

SGAN. Poor fellow! his grief is excessive. Stay, embrace me: I am her second self. (_Embraces Valere_)

SCENE XV--ISABELLA, SGANARELLE.

SGAN. I think he is greatly to be pitied.

ISA. Not at all.

SGAN. For the rest, your love touches me to the quick, little darling, and I mean it shall have its reward. Eight days are too long for your impatience; to-morrow I will marry you, and will not invite...

ISA. To-morrow!

SGAN. You modestly pretend to shrink from it; but I well know the joy these words afford you; you wish it were already over.

ISA. But...

SGAN. Let us get everything ready for this marriage.

ISA. (_Aside_), Heaven! Inspire me with a plan to put it off!

ACT III.

SCENE I.--ISABELLA, _alone_.

Yes, death seems to me a hundred times less dreadful than this fatal marriage into which I am forced; all that I am doing to escape its horrors should excuse me in the eyes of those who blame me. Time presses; it is night; now, then, let me fearlessly entrust my fate to a lover's fidelity.

SCENE II.--SGANARELLE, ISABELLA.

SGAN. (_Speaking to those inside the house_). Here I am once more; to-morrow they are going, in my name...

ISA. O Heaven!

SGAN. Is it you, darling? Where are you going so late? You said when I left you that, being rather tired, you would shut yourself up in your room; you even begged that on my return I would let you be quiet till to-morrow morning....

ISA. It is true; but...

SGAN. But what?

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