CEL. I am going to teach you what you ought to do.
LEL. (Joining them). Mr. Trufaldin, give yourself no farther uneasiness; it was purely in obedience to my orders that this trusty servant came to visit you; I dispatched him to offer you my services, and to speak to you concerning this young lady, whose liberty I am willing to purchase before long, provided we two can agree about the terms.
MASC. (Aside). Plague take the ass!
TRUF. Ho! ho! Which of the two am I to believe? This story contradicts the former very much.
MASC. Sir, this gentleman is a little bit wrong in the upper story: did you not know it?
TRUF. I know what I know, and begin to smell a rat. Get you in (to Celia), and never take such a liberty again. As for you two, arrant rogues, or I am much mistaken, if you wish to deceive me again, let your stories be a little more in harmony.
SCENE V.—LELIO, MASCARILLE.
MASC. He is quite right. To speak plainly, I wish he had given us both a sound cudgelling. What was the good of showing yourself, and, like a Blunderer, coming and giving the lie to all that I had been saying?
LEL. I thought I did right.
MASC. To be sure. But this action ought not to surprise me. You possess so many counterplots that your freaks no longer astonish anybody.