_Enter_ Mademoiselle Giannina _and_ De la Cotterie.
_Gian._ Keep your seat, Mademoiselle; excuse me for having left you alone for a little while. I know you will be kind enough to forgive me, and I bring some one with me, who, I am sure, will secure your pardon.
_Cost._ Though surely in your own house and with a real friend such ceremony is needless, your company is always agreeable. I desire you will put yourself to no inconvenience.
_Gian._ Do you hear, Lieutenant? You see we Dutch are not without wit.
_De la Cot._ This is not the first time I have observed it.
_Cost._ Monsieur de la Cotterie is in a house that does honour to our country, and if he admires ladies of wit, he need not go out of it.
_Gian._ You are too polite, Mademoiselle.
_Gian._ Let us not dispute about our merits, but rather leave it to the Lieutenant to decide.
_De la Cot._ If you wish a decision, you must choose a better judge.
_Gian._ A partial one, indeed, cannot be a good judge.
_Cost._ And to say nothing of partiality, he feels under obligations to you as the mistress of the house.
_Gian._ Oh, in France, the preference is always given to the guest: is it not so, Lieutenant?
_De la Cot._ It is no less the custom in Holland, than in my own country.
_Cost._ That is to say, the greater the merit, the greater the distinction with which they are treated.
_Gian._ On that principle you would be treated with the most distinction.
_De la Cot._ [_Aside._] I shall get into trouble if this conversation continues.
_Cost._ I am engaged to my aunt; I promised to dine with her to-day, and it is not amiss to go early.
_Gian._ Oh, it is too early; your aunt is old, and you will perhaps still find her in bed.
_De la Cot._ [_Aside._] Do not prevent her from going.
_Cost._ I am overpowered by your politeness. [_Curtseying._]--[_Aside._] Her amusement is to torment me.
_Gian._ [_To_ Costanza.] What say you, my friend, have I not a good heart?
_Cost._ I must praise your kindness to me.
_Gian._ [_To_ De la Cotterie.] And do you, too, own you are under obligations to me?
_De la Cot._ Yes, certainly, I have reason to be grateful to you; you, who know my feelings, must be conscious of the great favour you do me. [_Ironically._]
_Gian._ [_To_ Costanza.] You hear him? he is delighted.