Har. Do so, do so. I am going to take a short stroll in the town, and I will come back again presently.
Val. (going towards the door through which Élise left, and speaking as if it were to her). Yes, money is more precious than anything else in the world, and you should thank heaven that you have so worthy a man for a father. He knows what life is. When a man offers to marry a girl without a dowry, we ought to look no farther. Everything is comprised in that, and "without dowry" compensates for want of beauty, youth, birth, honour, wisdom, and probity.
Har. Ah! the honest fellow! he speaks like an oracle. Happy is he who can secure such a servant!
ACT II.
SCENE I.——CLÉANTE, LA FLÈCHE.
Cle. How now, you rascal! where have you been hiding? Did I not give you orders to…?
La Fl. Yes, Sir, and I came here resolved to wait for you without stirring, but your father, that most ungracious of men, drove me into the street in spite of myself, and I well nigh got a good drubbing into the bargain.
Cle. How is our affair progressing? Things are worse than ever for us, and since I left you, I have discovered that my own father is my rival.
La Fl. Your father in love?
Cle. It seems so; and I found it very difficult to hide from him what I felt at such a discovery.