Chapter 9

_Enter_ AMANDA _followed by her_ MAID. _Maid._ If you please, madam, only to say whether you'll have me buy them or not? _Aman._ Yes--no--Go, teaser; I care not what you do. Pr'ythee, leave me. [_Exit_ MAID.] _Enter_ BERINTHIA. _Ber._ What, in the name of Jove, is the matter with you? _Aman._ The matter, Berinthia! I'm almost mad; I'm plagued to death. _Ber._ Who is it that plagues you? _Aman._ Who do you think should plague a wife but her husband? _Ber._ O, ho! is it come to that?--We shall have you wish yourself a widow, by-and-by. _Aman._ Would I were anything but what I am! A base, ungrateful man, to use me thus! _Ber._ What, has he given you fresh reason to suspect his wandering? _Aman._ Every hour gives me reason. _Ber._ And yet, Amanda, you perhaps at this moment cause in another's breast the same tormenting doubts and jealousies which you feel so sensibly yourself. _Aman._ Heaven knows I would not. _Ber._ Why, you can't tell but there may be some one as tenderly attached to Townly, whom you boast of as your conquest, as you can be to your husband? _Aman._ I'm sure, I never encouraged his pretensions. _Ber._ Psha! psha! no sensible man ever perseveres to love without encouragement. Why have you not treated him as you have Lord Foppington? _Aman._ Because he presumed not so far. But let us drop the subject. Men, not women, are riddles. Mr. Loveless now follows some flirt for variety, whom I'm sure he does not like so well as he does me. _Ber._ That's more than you know, madam. _Aman._ Why, do you know the ugly thing? _Ber._ I think I can guess at the person; but she's no such ugly thing neither. _Aman._ Is she very handsome? _Ber._ Truly I think so. _Aman._ Whate'er she be, I'm sure he does not like her well enough to bestow anything more than a little outward gallantry upon her. _Ber._ [_Aside._] Outward gallantry! I can't bear this.-- [_Aloud._] Come, come, don't you be too secure, Amanda: while you suffer Townly to imagine that you do not detest him for his designs on you, you have no right to complain that your husband is engaged elsewhere. But here comes the person we were speaking of. _Enter_ COLONEL TOWNLY. _Col. Town._ Ladies, as I come uninvited, I beg, if I intrude, you will use the same freedom in turning me out again. _Aman._ I believe it is near the time Loveless said he would be at home. He talked of accepting Lord Foppington's invitation to sup at Sir Tunbelly Clumsy's. _Col. Town._ His lordship has done me the honour to invite me also. If you'll let me escort you, I'll let you into a mystery as we go, in which you must play a part when we arrive. _Aman._ But we have two hours yet to spare; the carriages are not ordered till eight, and it is not a five minutes' drive. So, cousin, let us keep the colonel to play at piquet with us, till Mr. Loveless comes home. _Ber._ As you please, madam; but you know I have a letter to write. _Col. Town._ Madam, you know you may command me, though I am a very wretched gamester. _Aman._ Oh, you play well enough to lose your money, and that's all the ladies require; and so, without any more ceremony, let us go into the next room, and call for cards and candles. [_Exeunt._]