HEN. And why should I not? Does he lack merit? Is it a low choice I
have made?

ARM. Certainly not; but it would not be honest to take away the
conquest of another; and it is a fact not unknown to the world that
Clitandre has publicly sighed for me.

HEN. Yes; but all those sighs are mere vanities for you; you do not
share human weaknesses; your mind has for ever renounced matrimony,
and philosophy has all your love. Thus, having in your heart no
pretensions to Clitandre, what does it matter to you if another has
such pretensions?

ARM. The empire which reason holds over the senses does not call upon
us to renounce the pleasure of adulation; and we may refuse for a
husband a man of merit whom we would willingly see swell the number of
our admirers.

HEN. I have not prevented him from continuing his worship, but have
only received the homage of his passion when you had rejected it.

ARM. But do you find entire safety, tell me, in the vows of a rejected
lover? Do you think his passion for you so great that all love for me
can be dead in his heart?

HEN. He tells me so, sister, and I trust him.

ARM. Do not, sister, be so ready to trust him; and be sure that, when
he says he gives me up and loves you, he really does not mean it, but
deceives himself.