surface.true, but we had best not return together.
lady teazle.well don't stay--for maria shan't come to hear any more of your reasoning, i promise you--[exit.]
surface.a curious dilemma truly my politics have run me into.
i wanted at first only to ingratiate myself with lady teazle that she might not be my enemy with maria--and i have i don't know how--become her serious lover, so that i stand a chance of committing a crime i never meditated--and probably of losing maria by the pursuit!--sincerely i begin to wish i had never made such a point of gaining so very good a character, for it has led me into so many curst rogueries that i doubt i shall be exposed at last.
[exit.]
scene iii.--at sir peter's
--rowley and sir oliver--
sir oliver.ha! ha! ha! and so my old friend is married, hey?--a young wife out of the country!--ha! ha! that he should have stood bluff to old bachelor so long and sink into a husband at last!
rowley.but you must not rally him on the subject sir oliver--'tis a tender point i assure you though he has been married only seven months.
sir oliver.ah then he has been just half a year on the stool of repentance--poor peter! but you say he has entirely given up charles--never sees him, hey?
rowley.his prejudice against him is astonishing--and i am sure greatly increased by a jealousy of him with lady teazle--which he has been industriously led into by a scandalous society--in the neighbourhood--who have contributed not a little to charles's ill name.whereas the truth is[,] i believe[,] if the lady is partial to either of them his brother is the favourite.