[ACT IV., SCENE I.]
Seathrift, Mistress Seathrift, Mistress Holland, Mistress Scruple.
Sea. I did commit her to your charge, that you
Might breed her, Mistress Scruple, and do require
Her at your hand. Here be fine tricks, indeed!
My daughter Susan to be stol'n a week,
And you conceal it. You were of the plot,
I do suspect you.
Mis. Scr. Sir, will you but hear me meekly?
Sea. No, I'll never trust again
A woman with white eyes, that can take notes,
And write a comment on the catechism:
All your devotion's false. Is't possible
She could be gone without your knowledge?
Mis. Scr. Will you
Attend me, Mistress Seathrift? If my husband,
To wean her from love-courses, did not take
More pains with her than with his Tuesday lectures,
And if I did not every day expound
Some good things to her 'gainst the sin o' th' flesh,
For fear of such temptations, to which frail girls
Are very subject, let me never more
Be thought fit t' instruct young gentlewomen
Or deal in tent-stitch. Whoe'er 'twas that seduced her,
She took my daughter Emlin's gown and ruff,
And left her own clothes; and my scholars say,
She often would write letters.
Sea. Why, 'tis right:
Some silenc'd minister has got her. That I
Should breed my daughter in a conventicle!
Mis. Sea. Pray, husband, be appeas'd.
Sea. You are a fool.