Géronte: Quick, fetch the police, and prevent him from going off! Oh, traitor, I will have you punished by law.
Lucas: You shall hang for this, doctor! Don't stir a
step from here!
[Re-enter Léandre and Lucinde.
Léandre: Monsieur, I appear before you as Léandre, and to restore Lucinde to your authority. We intended to go off and to get married, but this undertaking has given place to a more honourable proceeding. It is only from your hands that I will receive Lucinde. I have to tell you, monsieur, that I have just received letters from which I learn that my uncle is dead, and that I am the heir to all his property.
Géronte: Monsieur, your virtue merits every consideration, and I give you my daughter with the greatest pleasure in the world.
Sganarelle: Physic has had a narrow escape.
Martine: Since you are not going to be hanged, you may thank me for making you a doctor. It was I who gained you that honour.
Sganarelle: I forgive you the beating because of the dignity to which you have raised me, but be prepared henceforth to show great respect towards a man of my consequence; and remember that a doctor's anger is more to be feared than folk imagine.
(Molière: Continued in Vol. XVIII)
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