Gasp. Ay, madam—fretting. Your absence threw me into a fever, and that destroyed my bloom:—You see, I look almost a middle-aged man, now.
Laura. No, really; far from it, I assure you.——The fop is as wrinkled as a baboon! [Aside.]
Gasp. Then jealousy—that gave me a jaundice.—My niece's husband, I hear, Don Carlos, has been my happy rival. Oh, my blade will hardly keep in its scabbard, when I think of him.
Laura. Think no more of him—he has been long banished my thoughts, be assured. I wonder you gave your niece to him, with such a fortune.
Gasp. Gave! she gave herself; and, as to fortune, she had not a pistole from me.
Laura. 'Twas, indeed, unnecessary, with so fine an estate as she had in Leon.
Gasp. My niece an estate in Leon! Not enough to give shelter to a field-mouse; and if he has told you so, he is a braggart.
Laura. Told me so—I have the writings; he has made over the lands to me.
Gasp. Made over the lands to you!—Oh, a deceiver! I begin to suspect a plot. Pray, let me see this extraordinary deed. [She runs to a Cabinet, d. f.] A plot, I'll be sworn!
Laura. Here is the deed which made that estate mine for ever. No, sir, I will intrust it in no hand but my own. Yet look over me, and read the description of the lands.