Arg. For my part, I should have been deceived this time, and sworn that the two were but one.

SCENE XIV.—ARGAN, BÉRALDE, TOINETTE (as a doctor).

Toi. Sir, I beg your pardon with all my heart.

Arg. (to Béralde). It is wonderful.

Toi. You will not take amiss, I hope, the curiosity I feel to see such an illustrious patient; and your reputation, which reaches the farthest ends of the world, must be my excuse for the liberty I am taking.

Arg. Sir, I am your servant.

Toi. I see, Sir, that you are looking earnestly at me. What age do you think I am?

Arg. I should think twenty-six or twenty-seven at the utmost.

Toi. Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! I am ninety years old.

Arg. Ninety years old!