ERG. Then she does not yet know that you love her?
VAL. It is a point on which I am not informed. Wherever the churl took
this fair one, she always saw me like a shadow behind her; my looks
daily tried to explain to her the violence of my love. My eyes have
spoken much; but who can tell whether, after all, their language could
be understood?
ERG. It is true that this language may sometimes prove obscure, if it
have not writing or speech for its interpreter.
VAL. What am I to do to rid myself of this vast difficulty, and to learn
whether the fair one has perceived that I love her? Tell me some means
or other.
ERG. That is what we have to discover. Let us go in for a while--the
better to think over it.
ACT II.
SCENE I.--ISABELLA, SGANARELLE.
SGAN. That will do; I know the house, and the person, simply from the
description you have given me.
ISA. (_Aside_). Heaven, be propitious, and favour to-day the artful
contrivance of an innocent love!
SGAN. Do you say they have told you that his name is Val?re?
ISA. Yes.
SGAN. That will do; do not make yourself uneasy about it. Go inside, and
leave me to act. I am going at once to talk to this young madcap.
ISA. (_As she goes in_). For a girl, I am planning a pretty bold
scheme. But the unreasonable severity with which I am treated will be my
excuse to every right mind.
SCENE II.--SGANARELLE, _alone_.
(_Knocks at the door of Val?re's house_).
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