JULIA If I were in spirits, Lydia, I should chide you only by laughing heartily at you; but it suits more the situation of my mind, at present, earnestly to entreat you not to let a man, who loves you with sincerity, suffer that unhappiness from your caprice, which I know too well caprice can inflict.
LYDIA
O Lud! what has brought my aunt here?
[Enter Mrs. MALAPROP, FAG, and DAVID.]
Mrs. MALAPROP So! so! here's fine work!—here's fine suicide, parricide, and simulation, going on in the fields! and Sir Anthony not to be found to prevent the antistrophe!
JULIA
For Heaven's sake, madam, what's the meaning of this?
Mrs. MALAPROP
That gentleman can tell you—'twas he enveloped the affair to me.
LYDIA
[To FAG.] Do, sir, will you, inform us?
FAG Ma'am, I should hold myself very deficient in every requisite that forms the man of breeding, if I delayed a moment to give all the information in my power to a lady so deeply interested in the affair as you are.
LYDIA
But quick! quick sir!
FAG True, ma'am, as you say, one should be quick in divulging matters of this nature; for should we be tedious, perhaps while we are flourishing on the subject, two or three lives may be lost!