In short, flesh is weak; I know what
stories are going about. I have no mind to wear horns, if I can help it;
and as her lot requires her to marry me, I mean to be as certain of her
as I am of myself.
ISA. I believe you have no grounds for....
SGAN. Hold your tongue, I shall teach you to go out without us!
LEO. What, sir....
SGAN. Good Heavens, madam! without wasting any more words, I am not
speaking to you, for you are too clever.
LEO. Do you regret to see Isabella with us?
SGAN. Yes, since I must speak plainly; you spoil her for me. Your visits
here only displease me, and you will oblige me by honouring us no more.
LEO. Do you wish that I shall likewise speak my thoughts plainly to you?
I know not how she regards all this; but I know what effect mistrust
would have on me. Though we are of the same father and mother, she is
not much of my sister if your daily conduct produces any love in her.
LIS. Indeed, all these precautions are disgraceful. Are we in Turkey,
that women must be shut up? There, they say, they are kept like slaves;
this is why the Turks are accursed by God. Our honour, sir, is very weak
indeed, if it must be perpetually watched. Do you think, after all, that
these precautions are any bar to our designs? that when we take anything
into our heads, the cleverest man would not be but a donkey to us? All
that vigilance of yours is but a fool's notion; the best way of all, I
assure you, is to trust us.
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