_Pleas._ So; let but little minx go proud, and the dogs in
Covent-Garden have her in the wind immediately; all pursue the scent.

_Trick._ Not to a boarding-house, I hope?

_Pleas._ If they were wise, they would rather go to a brothel-house;
for there most mistresses have left behind them their maiden-heads, of
blessed memory: and those, which would not go off in that market, are
carried about by bawds, and sold at doors, like stale flesh in
baskets. Then, for your honesty, or justness, as you call it, to your
keepers, your kept-mistress is originally a punk; and let the cat be
changed into a lady never so formally, she still retains her natural
property of mousing.

_Mrs. Brain._ You are very sharp upon the mistresses; but I hope
you'll spare the wives.

_Pleas._ Yes, as much as your husbands do after the first month of
marriage; but you requite their negligence in household-duties, by
making them husbands of the first head, ere the year be over.

_Wood._ [_Aside._] She has me there, too!

_Pleas._ And as for you, young gallant--

_Wood._ Hold, I beseech you! a truce for me.

_Pleas._ In troth, I pity you; for you have undertaken a most
difficult task,--to cozen two women, who are no babies in their art:
if you bring it about, you perform as much as he that cheated the very