SCENE III.——HARPAGON, CLÉANTE.
HAR.
It is you who are ruining yourself by loans so greatly to be condemned!
CLE.
So it is you who seek to enrich yourself by such criminal usury!
HAR.
And you dare, after that, to show yourself before me?
CLE.
And you dare, after that, to show yourself to the world?
HAR.
Are you not ashamed, tell me, to descend to these wild excesses, to rush headlong into frightful expenses, and disgracefully to dissipate the wealth which your parents have ama**ed with so much toil.
CLE.
Are you not ashamed of dishonouring your station by such dealings, of sacrificing honour and reputation to the insatiable desire of heaping crown upon crown, and of outdoing the most infamous devices that have ever been invented by the most notorious usurers?
HAR.
Get out of my sight, you reprobate; get out of my sight!
CLE.
Who is the more criminal in your opinion: he who buys the money of which he stands in need, or he who obtains, by unfair means, money for which he has no use?
HAR.
Begone, I say, and do not provoke me to anger. (Alone) After all, I am not very much vexed at this adventure; it will be a lesson to me to keep a better watch over all his doings.