MRS. FRAMPTON
What mean his alter'd tones? These looks to me,
Whose glances yet he has repell'd with coolness?
Is the wind changed? I'll veer about with it,
And meet him in all fashions. [Aside.]
All my leisure,
Feebly bestow'd upon my kind friends here,
Would not express a tithe of the obligements
I every hour incur.
SELBY
No more of that.—
I know not why, my wife hath lost of late
Much of her cheerful spirits.
MRS. FRAMPTON
It was my topic
To-day; and every day, and all day long,
I still am chiding with her. "Child," I said,
And said it pretty roundly—it may be
I was too peremptory—we elder school-fellows,
Presuming on the advantage of a year
Or two, which, in that tender time, seem'd much,
In after years, much like to elder sisters,
Are prone to keep the authoritative style,
When time has made the difference most ridiculous—
SELBY
The observation's shrewd.
MRS. FRAMPTON
"Child," I was saying,
"If some wives had obtained a lot like yours,"
And then perhaps I sigh'd, "they would not sit
In corners moping, like to sullen moppets
That want their will, but dry their eyes, and look
Their cheerful husbands in the face," perhaps
I said, their Selby's, "with proportion'd looks
Of honest joy."
SELBY
You do suspect no jealousy?
MRS. FRAMPTON
What is his import? Whereto tends his speech? [Aside.]
Of whom, of what, should she be jealous, sir?
SELBY
I do not know, but women have their fancies;
And underneath a cold indifference,
Or show of some distaste, husbands have mask'd
A growing fondness for a female friend,
Which the wife's eye was sharp enough to see
Before the friend had wit to find it out.
You do not quit us soon?
MRS. FRAMPTON
'Tis as I find
Your Katherine profits by my lessons, sir.—
Means this man honest? Is there no deceit? [Aside.]
SELBY
She cannot chuse.—Well, well, I have been thinking,
And if the matter were to do again—