SCANDAL, ANGELICA, JENNY.
ANG. Ha! I saw him wink and smile. I fancy ’tis a trick—I’ll try.—I
would disguise to all the world a failing which I must own to you: I fear
my happiness depends upon the recovery of Valentine. Therefore I conjure
you, as you are his friend, and as you have compassion upon one fearful
of affliction, to tell me what I am to hope for—I cannot speak—but you
may tell me, tell me, for you know what I would ask?
SCAN. So, this is pretty plain. Be not too much concerned, madam; I
hope his condition is not desperate. An acknowledgment of love from you,
perhaps, may work a cure, as the fear of your aversion occasioned his
distemper.
ANG. [_Aside_.] Say you so; nay, then, I’m convinced. And if I don’t
play trick for trick, may I never taste the pleasure of
revenge.—Acknowledgment of love! I find you have mistaken my compassion,
and think me guilty of a weakness I am a stranger to. But I have too
much sincerity to deceive you, and too much charity to suffer him to be
deluded with vain hopes. Good nature and humanity oblige me to be
concerned for him; but to love is neither in my power nor inclination,
and if he can’t be cured without I suck the poison from his wounds, I’m
afraid he won’t recover his senses till I lose mine.
SCAN. Hey, brave woman, i’faith—won’t you see him, then, if he desire
it?
ANG. What signify a madman’s desires? Besides, ’twould make me
uneasy:—if I don’t see him, perhaps my concern for him may lessen. If I
forget him, ’tis no more than he has done by himself; and now the
surprise is over, methinks I am not half so sorry as I was.
SCAN. So, faith, good nature works apace; you were confessing just now
an obligation to his love.
ANG. But I have considered that passions are unreasonable and
involuntary; if he loves, he can’t help it; and if I don’t love, I can’t
help it; no more than he can help his being a man, or I my being a woman:
or no more than I can help my want of inclination to stay longer here.
Come, Jenny.