in this matter really appeared to you so mysterious?
[Exit MAID.]

VERJUICE. Entirely so.

LADY SNEERWELL. [VERJUICE.?] An old Batchelor as Sir Peter was[,]
having taken a young wife from out of the Country--as Lady Teazle
is--are certainly fair subjects for a little mischievous raillery--
but here are two young men--to whom Sir Peter has acted as a kind
of Guardian since their Father's death, the eldest possessing
the most amiable Character and universally well spoken of[,]
the youngest the most dissipated and extravagant young Fellow
in the Kingdom, without Friends or caracter--the former one
an avowed admirer of yours and apparently your Favourite[,]
the latter attached to Maria Sir Peter's ward--and confessedly
beloved by her. Now on the face of these circumstances it is
utterly unaccountable to me why you a young Widow with no great
jointure--should not close with the passion of a man of such
character and expectations as Mr. Surface--and more so why you
should be so uncommonly earnest to destroy the mutual Attachment
subsisting between his Brother Charles and Maria.

LADY SNEERWELL. Then at once to unravel this mistery--I must
inform you that Love has no share whatever in the intercourse
between Mr. Surface and me.

VERJUICE. No!

LADY SNEERWELL. His real attachment is to Maria or her Fortune--
but finding in his Brother a favoured Rival, He has been obliged