“Hath there been such a time, I would fain know that, that I have positively said ‘’Tis so’ when it proved otherwise?”
“Not that I know,” said the King.
“Take this from this,” said Polonius, pointing to his head and shoulders, “if this be otherwise. If circumstances lead me, I will find where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed within the centre.”
“How may we try it further?” asked the King.
Polonius replied that Hamlet often walked for hours together in the lobby where they then were, and suggested that at such a time Ophelia should be sent to speak to him; he and the King, secretly hidden behind the arras, would watch the interview.
“If he love her not, and be not fallen from his reason because of it, let me be no assistant for a State, but keep a farm and carters,” concluded Polonius complacently.
“We will try it,” said the King.
“But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading,” said the Queen, as Hamlet himself entered the lobby at that moment, his eyes fixed on the open book he held in his hand.
“Away, I do beseech you—both away!” cried Polonius eagerly. “I will speak to him.—How does my good Lord Hamlet?” he added suavely, as Hamlet approached.
“Well, God have mercy!” said Hamlet, in a voice of vacant indifference.