Phil. Yes, Mr. Thomas, I know how much you are my humble servant, and know what you said to Mrs. Judy, upon seeing her in one of her lady's cast manteaus: That any one would have thought her the lady, and that she had ordered the other to wear it till it sat easy; for now only it was becoming. To my lady it was only a covering, to Mrs. Judy it was a habit. This you said, after somebody or other. Oh, Tom! Tom! thou art as false and as base as the best gentleman of them all; but, you wretch, talk to me no more on the old odious subject—don't, I say.
Tom. I know not how to resist your commands, madam. [In a submissive tone, retiring.
Phil. Commands about parting are grown mighty easy to you of late.
Tom. Oh, I have her; I have nettled and put her into the right temper to be wrought upon and set a-prating. [Aside.]—Why, truly, to be plain with you, Mrs. Phillis, I can take little comfort of late in frequenting your house.
Phil. Pray, Mr. Thomas, what is it all of a sudden offends your nicety at our house?
Tom. I don't care to speak particulars, but I dislike the whole.
Phil. I thank you, sir, I am a part of that whole.
Tom. Mistake me not, good Phillis.
Phil. Good Phillis! Saucy enough. But however——
Tom. I say, it is that thou art a part, which gives me pain for the disposition of the whole. You must know, madam, to be serious, I am a man, at the bottom, of prodigious nice honour. You are too much exposed to company at your house. To be plain, I don't like so many, that would be your mistress's lovers, whispering to you.