Viola, still in disguise as Cesario, comes on stage and is followed by Malvolio, who catches up with the lad and asks him if he is indeed the young man who was with the Countess Olivia only a short time ago. Cesario admits that it was he, and Malvolio holds out a ring to him — seemingly a ring that Duke Orsino sent to Olivia, one which Cesario left behind by mistake. Malvolio adds sarcastically that Cesario would have saved Malvolio the time and trouble of returning it if Cesario had not been so absent-minded. Scornfully, Malvolio tells Cesario to return to his master, Orsino, and tell him that Olivia "will none of him," and furthermore he warns Cesario that he should "never be so hardy to come again in his [Orsino's] affairs."
Cesario is dumbfounded by Malvolio's high-handed manner; then, matching Malvolio's insolence, he says, "I'll none of it." Malvolio is incensed at Cesario's haughty manner and flings the ring to the ground; if Cesario wants it and "if it be worth stooping for, there it lies." With that, he exits abruptly.
Left alone, Viola ponders all that has happened; she is absolutely certain that she left no ring with Olivia, yet why does Olivia believe that she did and, moreover, why did she send Malvolio with such urgency to return it? Then she realizes what may have happened, and she is horrified: can it be possible that Olivia has fallen in love with Viola's boyish disguise? She is aghast: "fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her!" Thinking back on their interview, however, she clearly recalls that Olivia certainly "made good view of me; indeed, so much / That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue."
