MASC. Everything I do shows it is done by a gentleman; there is nothing
of the pedant about my effusions.
MAD. They are more than two thousand miles removed from that.
MASC. Did you observe the beginning, _oh! oh?_ there is something
original in that _oh! oh!_ like a man who all of a sudden thinks about
something, _oh! oh!_ Taken by surprise as it were, _oh! oh!_
MAD. Yes, I think that _oh! oh!_ admirable.
MASC. It seems a mere nothing.
CAT. Good Heavens! How can you say so? It is one of these things that
are perfectly invaluable.
MAD. No doubt on it; I would rather have written that _oh! oh!_ than an
epic poem.
MASC. Egad, you have good taste.
MAD. Tolerably; none of the worst, I believe.
MASC. But do you not also admire _quite without heed was I? quite
without heed was I_, that is, I did not pay attention to anything; a
natural way of speaking, _quite without heed was I, of no harm
thinking_, that is, as I was going along, innocently, without malice,
like a poor sheep, _you I chanced to spy_, that is to say, I amused
myself with looking at you, with observing you, with contemplating you.
_Slily your eyes_. ... What do you think of that word _slily_--is it not
well chosen?
CAT. Extremely so.
MASC. _Slily_, stealthily; just like a cat watching a mouse--_slily_.
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