TIM. You bestow too much praise on these trifles, Madam.

ARI. Such trifles may agreeably engage the thoughts of the most
serious people. Indeed, my daughter, you have cause to be thankful to
these princes, and you can never repay all the trouble they take for
you.

ERI. I am deeply grateful for it, Madam.

ARI. And yet you make them languish a long time for what they expect
from you. I have promised not to constrain you; but their love claims
from you a declaration that you should not put off any longer the
reward of their attentions. I had asked Sostratus to sound your heart,
but I do not know if he has begun to acquit himself of his commission.

ERI. Yes, Madam, he has. But it seems to me that I cannot put off too
long the decision which is asked of me, and that I could not give it
without incurring some blame. I feel equally thankful for the love,
attentions, and homage of these two princes, and I think it a great
injustice to show myself ungrateful either to the one or to the other
by the refusal I must make of one in preference to his rival.

IPH. We should call this, Madam, a very pretty way of refusing us
both.

ARI. This scruple, daughter, should not stop you; and those two
princes have both long since agreed to submit to the preference you
show.

ERI. Our inclinations easily deceive us, Madam, and disinterested