you had been my husband: you
know where our subjection lies.

_Wood._ But cannot I be yours without a priest? They were cunning
people, doubtless, who began that trade; to have a double hank upon
us, for two worlds: that no pleasure here, or hereafter, should be
had, without a bribe to them.

_Mrs Brain._ Well, I'm resolved, I'll read, against the next time I
see you; for the truth is, I am not very well prepared with arguments
for marriage; meanwhile, farewell.

_Wood._ I stand corrected; you have reason indeed to go, if I can use
my time no better: We'll withdraw if you please, and dispute the rest
within.

_Mrs Brain._ Perhaps, I meant not so.

_Wood,_ I understand your meaning at your eyes. You'll watch, Judith?

_Mrs Brain._ Nay, if that were all, I expect not my husband till
to-morrow. The truth is, he is so oddly humoured, that, if I were ill
inclined, it would half justify a woman; he's such a kind of man!

_Wood._ Or, if he be not, well make him such a kind of man.

_Mrs Brain._ So fantastical, so musical, his talk all rapture, and
half nonsense: like a clock out of order, set him a-going, and he
strikes eternally. Besides, he thinks me such a fool, that I could
half resolve to revenge myself, in justification of my wit.

_Wood._ Come, come, no half resolutions among lovers; I'll hear no
more of him, till I have revenged you fully. Go out and watch, Judith.
[_Exit_ JUDITH.

_Mrs Brain._ Yet, I could say, in my defence, that my friends married
me to him against my will.

_Wood._ Then let us put your friends, too, into the quarrel: it shall
go hard, but I'll give you a revenge for them.

_Enter_ JUDITH _again, hastily._

How now? what's the matter?

_Mrs Brain._ Can'st thou not speak? hast thou seen a ghost?--As I
live, she signs horns! that must be for my husband: he's returned.
[JUDITH _looks ghastly, and signs horns._

_Jud._ I would have told you so, if I could have spoken for fear.

_Mrs Brain._ Hark, a knocking! What shall we do? [_Knocking._
There's no dallying in this case: here you must not be found, that's
certain; but Judith hath a chamber within mine; haste quickly thither;
I'll secure the rest.

_Jud._ Follow me, sir. [_Exeunt_ WOODALL, JUDITH.

_Knocking again. She opens: Enter_ BRAINSICK.

_Brain._ What's the matter, gentlewoman? Am I excluded from my own
fo