Elv. Do you consider the hazard I have run to see you here? if you do, methinks it should inform you, that I love not at a common rate.
Lor. Nay, if you talk of considering, let us consider why we are alone. Do you think the friar left us together to tell beads? Love is a kind of penurious god, very niggardly of his opportunities: he must be watched like a hard-hearted treasurer; for he bolts out on the sudden, and, if you take him not in the nick, he vanishes in a twinkling.
Elv. Why do you make such haste to have done loving me? You men are all like watches, wound up for striking twelve immediately; but after you are satisfied, the very next that follows, is the solitary sound of a single—one!
Lor. How, madam! do you invite me to a feast, and then preach abstinence?
Elv. No, I invite you to a feast where the dishes are served up in order: you are for making a hasty meal, and for chopping up your entertainment, like a hungry clown. Trust my management, good colonel, and call not for your desert too soon: believe me, that which comes last, as it is the sweetest, so it cloys the soonest.
Lor. I perceive, madam, by your holding me at this distance, that there is somewhat you expect 423 from me: what am I to undertake, or suffer, ere I can be happy?
Elv. I must first be satisfied, that you love me.
Lor. By all that's holy! by these dear eyes!—
Elv. Spare your oaths and protestations; I know you gallants of the time have a mint at your tongue's end to coin them.
Lor. You know you cannot marry me; but, by heavens, if you were in a condition—