LACKEY: Monsieur says that he'll be here very soon.
DORANTE: That's fine.
DORIMENE: I don't know, Dorante; I feel strange allowing you to
bring me to this house where I know no one.
DORANTE: Then where would you like, Madame, for me to express my
love with an entertainment, since you will allow neither your house
nor mine for fear of scandal?
DORIMENE: But you don't mention that every day I am gradually
preparing myself to receive too great proofs of your passion? As
good a defense as I have put up, you wear down my resistance, and
you have a polite persistence which makes me come gently to
whatever you like. The frequent visits began, declarations
followed, after them came serenades and amusements in their train,
and presents followed them. I withstood all that, but you don't
give up at all and step by step you are overcoming my resolve. As
for me, I can no longer answer for anything, and I believe that in
the end you will bring me to marriage, which I have so far
avoided.
DORANTE: My faith! Madame, you should already have come to it. You
are a widow, and you answer only to yourself. I am my own master
and I love you more than my life. Why shouldn't you be all my
happiness from today onward?
DORIMENE: Goodness! Dorante, for two people to live happily
together both of them need particular qualities; and two of the
most reasonable persons in the world often have trouble making a
union satisfactory to them both.
DORANTE: You're fooling yourself, Madame, to imagine so many
difficulties, and the experience you had with one marriage doesn't
determine anything for others.
DORIMENE: Finally I always come back to this. The expenses that I
see you go to for me disturb me for two reasons: one is that they
get me more involved than I would like; and the other is that I am
sure--meaning no offense--that you cannot do this without
financially inconveniencing yourself, and I certainly don't want
that.
DORANTE: Ah! Madame, they are trifles, and it isn't by that...
DORIMENE: I know what I'm talking about; and among other gifts, the
diamond you forced me to take is worth...
DORANTE: Oh! Madame, mercy, don't put any value on a thing that my
love finds unworthy of you, and allow... Here's the master of the
house.
ACT THREE