AR. On what foundation, then, have you, brother...

SGAN. What! Did you not come out of Valère's house? Have you not been
declaring your passion this very day? And have you not been for a year
past in love with him?

LEO. Who has been painting such pretty pictures of me? Who has been at
the trouble of inventing such falsehoods?




SCENE X.--ISABELLA, VALÈRE, LÉONOR, ARISTE, SGANARELLE, MAGISTRATE,
NOTARY, LISETTE, ERGASTE.


ISA. Sister, I ask you generously to pardon me, if, by the freedom I
have taken, I have brought some scandal upon your name. The urgent
pressure of a great necessity, suggested to me, some time ago, this
disgraceful stratagem. Your example condemns such an escapade; but
fortune treated us differently. (_To Sganarelle_). As for you, sir,
I will not excuse myself to you. I serve you much more than I wrong you.
Heaven did not design us for one another. As I found I was unworthy of
your love, and undeserving of a heart like yours, I vastly preferred to
see myself in another's hands.

VAL. (_To Sganarelle_). For me, I esteem it my greatest glory and
happiness to receive her, sir, from your hands.