ACT I. SCENE I.

SCENE, _Mr._ Jourdain'_s_.

Isabel, Beatrice.

ISABEL.

A Nunnery! Ha, ha, ha! And is it possible, my dear _Beatrice_, you can intend to sacrifice your Youth and Beauty, to go out of the World as soon as you come into it!

_Bea._ No one, my dear _Isabel_, can sacrifice too much or too soon to Heaven.

_Isa._ Pshaw! Heaven regards Hearts and not Faces, and an old Woman will be as acceptable a Sacrifice as a young one.

_Bea._ It is possible you may come to a better Understanding, and value the World as little as I do.

_Isa._ As you say, it is possible when I can enjoy it no longer, I may; nay, I do not care if I promise you when I grow old and ugly, I'll come and keep you Company: But this I am positive, till the World is weary of me, I never shall be weary of the World.

_Bea._ What can a Woman of Sense see in it worth her valuing?

_Isa._ Oh! ten thousand pretty things! Equipage, Cards, Musick, Plays, Balls, Flattery, Visits, and that prettiest thing of all pretty things, a pretty Fellow----I rather wonder what Charms a Woman of any Spirit can fancy in a Nunnery, in watching, working, praying, and sometimes, I am afraid, wishing for other Company than that of an old fusty Friar--Oh! 'tis a delightful State, when every Man one sees, instead of tempting us to Sin, is to rebuke us for them.

_Bea._ Such Sentiments as these would indeed make you very uneasy--but believe me, Child, you would soon bring yourself to hate Mankind; fasting and praying are the best Cures in the World for these violent Passions.

_Isa._ On my Conscience I should want neither; if the continual Sight of a Set of dirty Priests would not bring me to abhor Mankind, I dare swear nothing could.