MASC. Did you not mention her virtue?
LEAND. Ha! what is that you mutter? Out with it; explain what you mean
by repeating that word "virtue."
MASC. Sir, your countenance changes all of a sudden; perhaps I had much
better hold my tongue.
LEAND. No, no, speak out.
MASC. Well, then, out of charity I will cure you of your blindness. That
girl....
LEAND. Proceed.
MASC. So far from being merciless, makes no difficulty in obliging some
people in private; you may believe me, after all she is not
stony-hearted, to any one who knows how to take her in the right mood.
She looks demure, and would fain pass for a prude; but I can speak of
her on sure grounds. You know I understand something of the craft, and
ought to know that kind of cattle.
LEAND. What! Celia?...
MASC. Yes, her modesty is nothing but a mere sham, the semblance of a
virtue which will never hold out, but vanishes, as any one may discover,
before the shining rays emitted from a purse.
[Footnote: This is an allusion to the rays of the sun, placed above the
crown, and stamped on all golden crown-pieces, struck in France from
Louis XI. (November 2, 1475) until the end of the reign of Louis XIII.
These crowns were called _ecus au soleil_.
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