'Twas still my father's precept--"Better owe
A yard of land to labour, than to chance
Be debtor for a rood!"

Wal. 'Twas a wise precept.
You've a fair house--you'll get a mistress for it?

Clif. In time!

Wal. In time! 'Tis time thy choice were made.
Is't not so yet? Or is thy lady love
The newest still thou seest?

Clif. Nay, not so.
I'd marry, Master Walter, but old use -
For since the age of thirteen I have lived
In the world--has made me jealous of the thing
That flattered me with hope of profit. Bargains
Another would snap up, might be for me:
Till I had turned and turned them! Speculations,
That promised, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty,
Ay, cent-per-cent. returns, I would not launch in,
When others were afloat, and out at sea;
Whereby I made small gains, but missed great losses.
As ever, then, I looked before I leaped,
So do I now.

Wal. Thou'rt all the better for it!
Let's see! Hand free--heart whole--well-favoured--so!
Rich, titled! Let that pass!--kind, valiant, prudent -