_Y. Mir._ Madam, here's a gentleman, who declares----
_Dur._ Madam, don't believe him, I declare nothing--What, the devil, do you mean, man?
_Y. Mir._ He says, madam, that you are as beautiful as an angel.
_Dur._ He tells a damned lie, madam! I say no such thing--Are you mad, Mirabel? Why, I shall drop down with shame.
_Y. Mir._ And so, madam, not doubting but your ladyship may like him as well as he does you, I think it proper to leave you together.
_Dur._ Hold, hold--Why, Mirabel, friend, sure you won't be so barbarous as to leave me alone! Pr'ythee, speak to her for yourself, as it were! Lord, Lord, that a Frenchman should want impudence!
_Y. Mir._ You look mighty demure, madam.--She's deaf, Captain.
_Y. Mir._ The gravity of your air, madam, promises some extraordinary fruits from your study, which moves us with curiosity to inquire the subject of your ladyship's contemplation.--Not a word!
_Dur._ I hope in the Lord, she's speechless! if she be, she's mine this moment. Mirabel, d'ye think a woman's silence can be natural?
_Bis._ But the forms which logicians introduce, and which proceed from simple enumeration, are dubitable, and proceed only upon admittance--
_Y. Mir._ Hoyty toyty! what a plague have we here? Plato in petticoats!
_Dur._ Ay, ay, let her go on, man; she talks in my own mother tongue.
_Bis._ 'Tis exposed to invalidity, from a contradictory instance; looks only upon common operations, and is infinite in its termination.
_Dur._ Axioms! axioms! self-evident principles!
_Bis._ Then the ideas wherewith the mind is pre-occupate.--O, gentlemen, I hope you'll pardon my cogitation! I was involved in a profound point of philosophy, but I shall discuss it somewhere else, being satisfied, that the subject is not agreeable to your sparks, that profess the vanity of the times. [_Exit._
_Y. Mir._ Go thy way, good wife Bias! Do you hear, Duretete? Dost hear this starched piece of austerity?
_Dur._ She's mine, man, she's mine--My own talent to a T.--I'll match her in dialectics, 'faith! I was seven years at the university, man, nursed up with Barbaro, Celarunt, Darii, Ferio, Baralipton. Did you ever know, man, that 'twas metaphysics made me an ass? It was, 'faith! Had she talked a word of singing, dancing, plays, fashions, or the like, I had foundered at the first step; but as she is--Mirabel, wish me joy!