Mel.  Let  me  adore  thee,  my  better  genius  !  by  Heaven
I  think  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  fate  to  disappoint  my
hopes ! — My  hopes !  my  certainty  !

Mask.  Well,  I'll  meet  you  here  within  a  quarter  of
eight,  and  give  you  notice.
Mel.  Good  fortune  ever  go  along  with  thee !   \Eoceuut.
SCENE  II.
The  same.
MELLEFONT  and  CARELESS  meeting.
Care.  Mellefont,  get  out  o'  th'  way,  my  Lady  Plyant's
coming,  and  I  shall  never  succeed  while  thou  art  in  sight,
• — though  she  begins  to  tack  about;  but  I  made  love  a
great  while  to  no  purpose.
Mel.  Why,  what's  the  matter  ?  she's  convinced  that  I
don't  care  for  her.
SCENE  II.]        THE  DOUBLE-DEALER.  139

Care.  I  can't  get  an  answer  from  her  that  does  not
begin  with  her  honour,  or  her  virtue,  her  religion,  or  some
such  cant.  Then  she  has  told  me  the  whole  history  of
Sir  Paul's  nine  years'  courtship;  how  he  has  lain  for
whole  nights  together  upon  the  stairs  before  her  chamber
door ;  and  that  the  first  favour  he  received  from  her  was
a  piece  of  an  old  scarlet  petticoat  for  a  stomacher,  which
since  the  day  of  his  marriage  he  has,  out  of  a  piece
of  gallantry,  converted  into  a  nightcap,  and  wears  it
still  with  much  solemnity  on  his  anniversary  wedding-
night.
Mel.  That  I  have  seen,  with  the  ceremony  thereunto
belonging :  for  on  that  night  he  creeps  in  at  the  bed's
feet,  like  a  gulled  bassa '  that  has  married  a  relation  of  the
Grand  Signior,  and  that  night  he  has  his  arms  at  liberty.
