Widow (ill tempered)
I beg you, she says, I beg you.
Lucy
She begs you with a certain air—
Widow
Taking on a tone—
Lucy
Of people of quality who—
Widow
Believing that their prayers—
Lucy Are a sort of command. A great lord who asks a citizen to do him a service is like a banker respectfully asking payment on a promissory note.
Widow
She speaks as if one was in great fear of her.
Lucy You'd have less reason to fear if your husband were alive. For he was as clever in protecting his prey as he was in catching it.
Widow
Alas, I am indeed lost.
Lucy Madame, the Countess could easily cheat you. You may say that she cannot cheat the widow of an honest steward, who enriched himself as everyone does by entangling his affairs with hers. But, now she is going to take from you unjustly that which your husband earned on the fair and square.