Will your ladyship be at
the play to-night?"
"Well," replied her grace, well pleased at this beginning, "what
if I am there?"
"Why, then," answered he, "I will be there to wait on your
ladyship, though I disappoint a fine woman who has made me an
assignation."
"So," said this frail daughter of Eve, greedily swallowing his
flattery, "you are sure to disappoint a woman who has favoured
you for one who has not?"
"Yes," quoth he, readily enough, "if the one who has not favoured
me is the finer woman of the two. But he who can be constant to
your ladyship till he can find a finer, is sure to die your
captive."
That night her grace sat in the front row of the king's box at
Drury Lane playhouse, and sure enough there was handsome Will
Wycherley sitting in the pit underneath. The gentleman cast his
eyes upwards and sighed; the lady looked down and played with her
fan; after which preliminaries they fell into conversation which
both found far more interesting than the comedy then being
enacted before their eyes. This was the beginning of an intimacy
concerning which the court made merry, and of which the town
spoke scandal. My lady disguised herself as a country wench, and
visited his chambers, Mr. Wycherley dedicated his play, "Love in
a Wood," to her in elegant phraseology, He was of opinion that
she stood as little in need of flattery as her beauty did of art;
he was anxious to let the world know he was the greatest admirer
she had; and he was desirous of returning her his grateful
acknowledgment for the favours he had received from her.
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