daughter, I should think about thirty years old. They told me that they
had been to supper, and to the play in the Duke's Playhouse, where Mr.
Shirley's tragi-comedy _The Young Admiral_ had been done; and that Mr.
Ireland was to come for them here, as presently he did, for it was
scarce safe for ladies to be abroad at such an hour in the streets
without an escort, so wild were the pranks played (and worse than
pranks), by even the King's gentlemen themselves, as well as by the
riff-raff.

We sat and talked a good while; and Mr. Grove brought chocolate up for
the ladies. But for myself, I had such a variety of thoughts, as I
talked with them all, knowing what I did, and they knowing nothing, that
I could scarce command my voice and manner sometimes. For here were
these innocent folk--with Mr. Grove smiling upon them with the
chocolate--talking of the play and what-not, and of which of the actors
pleased them and which did not--and I noticed that the ladies, as
always, were very severe upon the women--and the good fathers, too,
pleased that they were pleased, and rallying them upon their
gaiety--(for it appeared that these ladies did not go often into
company); and here sat I, with my secret upon my heart, knowing--or
guessing at least--that a plot was afoot to ruin them all and turn their
merriment into mourning.

But I think that I acquitted myself pretty well; and that none guessed
that anything was amiss with me; for I spoke of the plays I had seen in
Rome, before that I was a novice, and of the singers that I heard there;
and I listened, too, to their own speeches, gathering this and that, of
what they did and where they went, if by chance I might gather something
to their own advantage thereafter.