Gregory.

I scarce dare tell your ladyship the tidings I have to bear.

D. (aside). It’s true! it’s true!

G. My daughter Has run away with Frederick.

(Diana sinks on a chair; Flora runs to fan her.)

Ah! my lady! What have I done? I was too quick.

D. Nay, nay, Flora, begone. I can hear all. You knew it?

G. I had not the least suspicion of the truth; Altho’it needed but the merest trifle To clear my sight. I chanced to find her glove In Frederick’s room. All flashed upon me at once. I ran to seek her. She was gone. A message She left was given me, that she would be away All the afternoon: but since she had taken with her A valise....

D. She, ’twas she.... O most dissembling, Ungenerous, ungrateful....

Fl. I said ’twas true.

D. Begone at once I bid you. [Exit Flora.

G. I ran in haste To tell your ladyship; but for some reason Could not be admitted: so I took such steps To arrest them as I might....

D. Ha! they are seized?

G. I have since repented of my haste: a letter Put in my hands reveals the whole: ’tis passed Beyond prevention. It has been maturing Under our eyes for months. We must give way. ’Tis strange we never guessed it. This very morning I was in Laura’s room; and when we parted She made such long farewells, and looked at me With such reluctance, and such brimming eyes, I saw she had some trouble untold; and thinking ’Twas her dislike of Nicholas, I repented I had ever urged the match. I little thought, Dear girl, ’twas sorrow that she dared not tell me Her joy.

D. (aside). Her joy! no doubt! Here’s a fine father! What doth he wish? Ah, doubly have I been fooled. How plain ’tis now to see. The only one I have never once suspected; the only one It could have been. And Frederick must have told her My love of him. All I would have kept secret And thought was hid, hath been as open as day: And what I sought to learn hath been kept from me By them I trusted to discover it. Tristram, no doubt, whom I supposed a fool, Hath merely played with me. Thank heaven they are gone. I’ll never see him again. Befooled: befooled.

G. They have been befriended by the Duke of Milan.

D. The Duke of Milan too!

G. It was his letter I spake of. Frederick is, he tells me there, His old school-friend; he begs my pardon for him, Will fête the bride and bridegroom in his palace, And have the Archbishop marry them. ’Tis thither They are fled.

D. Then all this is a plot of the Duke’s!

G. (aside). I dare not tell her more.

D. Who brought the letter?

G. I wish my dear girl joy. She has chosen well.

D. Who brought the letter?

G. Tristram gave it me.

D. (half-aside). How came he by it?

Re-enter Tristram.

T. My lady! I have something now.

D. Tristram, I bade you leave the court: how dare you Appear before me again? Silence, I say. I know your news: you have served Your master with such lying skill, I wonder He did not take you and your Flora with him: There was not room enough perhaps in the coach For two such couples.

T. How, if you please, my lady, Are Flora and I two couples?

D. Silence. Tell me How you get letters from the Duke of Milan.

T. How I get letters from the Duke of Milan?

D. There’s nothing now to hide, so tell the truth.

T. I swear, my lady, that I know no more Of the Duke of Milan than a babe unborn. Your ladyship accused me once before Of having been at Milan, when ’twas plain That I had not gone, and never wished to go. Knowing my lady’s strong impartiality, I should not venture.

D. This will not do.

Enter Ricardo.

(Gregory beckons Tristram aside, and during Diana’s first speech whispers him, and Gregory and Tristram go out.)