Unfortunately, however, _Figaro_ himself is in a fix. He has borrowed money from _Marcellina_, _Bartolo's_ housekeeper, and he has promised to marry her in case of his inability to repay her. She now appears, to demand of _Figaro_ the fulfilment of his promise. _Bartolo_ encourages her in this, both out of spite against _Figaro_ and because he wants to be rid of the old woman, who has been his mistress and even borne him a son, who, however, was kidnapped soon after his birth. There is a vengeance aria for _Bartolo_, and a spiteful duet for _Marcellina_ and _Susanna_, beginning: "Via resti servita, madama brillante" (Go first, I entreat you, Miss, model of beauty!).
Hempel (Susanna), Matzenauer (the Countess), and Farrar (Cherubino) in "Le Nozze di Figaro"]
The next scene opens between the page, _Cherubino_, a boy in love with every petticoat, and _Susanna_. He begs _Susanna_ to intercede for him with the _Count_, who has dismissed him. _Cherubino_ desires to stay around the _Countess_, for whom he has conceived one of his grand passions. "Non so più cosa son, cosa faccio"--(Ah, what feelings now possess me!). The _Count's_ step is heard. _Cherubino_ hides himself behind a chair, from where he hears the _Count_ paying court to _Susanna_. The voice of the music-master then is heard from without. The _Count_ moves toward the door. _Cherubino_, taking advantage of this, slips out from behind the chair and conceals himself in it under a dress that has been thrown over it. The _Count_, however, instead of going out, hides behind the chair, in the same place where _Cherubino_ has been. _Basilio_, who has entered, now makes all kinds of malicious remarks and insinuations about the flirtations of _Cherubino_ with _Susanna_ and also with the _Countess_. The _Count_, enraged at the free use of his wife's name, emerges from behind the chair. Only the day before, he says, he has caught that rascal, _Cherubino_, with the gardener's daughter _Barbarina_ (with whom the _Count_ also is flirting). _Cherubino_, he continues, was hidden under a coverlet, "just as if under this dress here." Then, suiting the action to the words, by way of demonstration, he lifts the gown from the chair, and lo! there is _Cherubino_. The _Count_ is furious. But as the page has overheard him making love to _Susanna_, and as _Figaro_ and others have come in to beg that he be forgiven, the _Count_, while no longer permitting him to remain in the castle, grants him an officer's commission in his own regiment. It is here that _Figaro_ addresses _Cherubino_ in the dashing martial air, "Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso" (Play no more, the part of a lover).