SCENE I.—A Grove of Trees, with a tangled Thicket in the Back-ground. Charvilleis discovered pacing to and fro, in a disturbed Manner,Smitchenstaultpeeping behind him, through the Bushes.
CHARVILLE (after muttering to himself confusedly).
A cloak! a convenience! a provider for disorderly passion!—Noosed for this purpose! Her cunning, her witchery, her wickedness—who could have imagined it? (After a pause.) Gain her affections from me! Are his person, his manners, his intellects superior to mine? It is not so: comparison has not produced it. Any man might have had her who happened to come in her way with baseness enough to attempt it.—What can I do? There is no corroborated proof: the world would laugh me to scorn.—Oh, it is ever thus! Would I had done with this envious, malicious world!—Ha!
SMITCHENSTAULT (coming forward).
Don't start, my dear frent; I know all dat you do tink, and I am your frent
