Pages. Your suits, sir, were not without employment. They were seam-rent, and stood in need of stitching.
All. Go to, rogues, you will never hang well together till you be stitched in a halter.
[They attire themselves.
Pages. Well, we got more clear gains by this shift than you will by your visit.
[Aside.
Car. We trench too much upon these ladies' patience:
Better too late than never; let us haste
To crown their longing hopes with our attendance:
Delays in visits quicken our desires,
And in their objects kindle secret fires.
[They come down buttoning themselves.
Fastus in Antidotum frigoris, processit et urget Insolitos motus, lepidæque Cupidinis æstus, Vestibus amictus laceratis, alget et ardet.
—Solin.
Flo. 'Tis high meridian! we've lost the time
Of our appointed treatment.[169]
Car. Let's contrive
Some neat evasion covertly disguis'd
To bear the face of truth.