considering the fashionable life I lead, it may be ten years before my
judgment arrives to its necessary standard.

BARON. I have the head-ach, Count--These tidings have discomposed,
disordered me--I beg your absence for a few minutes.

COUNT. I obey--And let me assure you, my Lord, that, although, from
the extreme delicacy of your honour, you have ever through life
shuddered at seduction; yet, there are constitutions, and there are
circumstances, in which it can be palliated.

BARON. Never [violently].

COUNT. Not in a grave, serious, reflecting man such as _you_, I grant.
But in a gay, lively, inconsiderate, flimsy, frivolous coxcomb, such
as myself, it is excusable: for me to keep my word to a woman, would
be deceit: 'tis not expected of me. It is in my character to break
oaths in love; as it is in your nature, my Lord, never to have spoken
any thing but wisdom and truth. [Exit

BARON. Could I have thought a creature so insignificant as that, had
power to excite sensations such as I feel at present! I am, indeed,
worse than he is, as much as the crimes of a man exceed those of an
idiot.

Enter AMELIA.

AMELIA. I heard the Count leave you, my Lord, and so I am come to
enquire----