I must lower your presumption. Read that.

VAL. (_After having read the letter_). These are tender words.

ERAS. You know the handwriting?

VAL. Yes, it is Lucile's.

ERAS. Well! where is now your boasted certainty...?

VAL. (_Smiling and going away_). Farewell, Eraste.

GR.-RE. He is mad, surely. What reason has he to laugh?

ERAS. He certainly surprises me, and between ourselves I cannot imagine
what the deuce of a mystery is hidden under this.

GR.-RE. Here comes his servant, I think.

ERAS. Yes, it is he; let us play the hypocrite, to set him talking about
his master's love.




SCENE IV.--ERASTE, MASCARILLE, GROS-RENE.


MASC. (_Aside_). No, I do not know a more wretched situation, than
to have a young master, very much in love.