Mar. Oh, Frosine! What a strange state of things that, in order to be happy, we must look forward to the death of another. Yet death will not fall in with all the projects we make.
Fro. You are joking. You marry him with the express understanding that he will soon leave you a widow; it must be one of the articles of the marriage contract. It would be very wrong in him not to die before three months are over. Here he is himself.
Mar. Ah! dear Frosine, what a face!
SCENE IX.——HARPAGON, MARIANNE, FROSINE.
Har. (to Marianne). Do not be offended, fair one, if I come to you with my glasses on. I know that your beauty is great enough to be seen with the naked eye; but, still, it is with glasses that we look at the stars, and I maintain and uphold that you are a star, the most beautiful and in the land of stars. Frosine, she does not answer, star, it seems to me, shows no joy at the sight of me.
Fro. It is because she is still quite awe-struck, and young girls are always shy at first, and afraid of showing what they feel.
Har. (to Frosine). You are right. (To Marianne) My pretty darling, there is my daughter coming to welcome you.
SCENE X.——HARPAGON, ÉLISE, MARIANNE, FROSINE.
Mar. I am very late in acquitting myself of the visit I owed you.
Eli. You have done what I ought to have done. It was for me to have come and seen you first.