DUKE  How now, Sir Proteus, is your countryman,

According to our proclamation, gone?

PROTEUS       Gone, my good lord.

DUKE  My daughter takes his going grievously?

PROTEUS       A little time, my lord, will kill that grief.

DUKE  So I believe, but Thurio thinks not so.

Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee

(For thou hast shown some sign of good desert)

Makes me the better to confer with thee.

PROTEUS       Longer than I prove loyal to your grace

Let me not live to look upon your grace.    (3.2.11-21)

Enter Proteus, to be quizzed by the Duke: is your countryman, according to our proclamation, gone? So, the Duke has perhaps made it Proteus’s job to see that Valentine actually leaves Milan. And he’s not going to speak Valentine’s name. Neither is Proteus; all he can say is gone, my lord. Yes. I’ve carried out your orders. My daughter takes his going grievously? Is Silvia still taking all this badly? The Duke is seeing Proteus as already one of Silvia’s intimates, who will be able to report on her current state; he trusts him totally. Proteus is deferential, impersonal, aphoristic: a little time, my lord, will kill that grief. She’ll get over it. That is, of course, what the Duke’s just been saying to Thurio. So they’re on the same wavelength here, Proteus and the Duke, conventional wisdom and all. That helps, even though the Duke is still concerned, not least because of Thurio’s doubts, that he thinks not so and is therefore gloomy about his prospects with Silvia. (That suits Proteus too.)

Now a pleasing affirmation for Proteus from the Duke: Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee (for thou hast shown some sign of good desert) makes me the better to confer with thee. I think very highly of you, young man, and you’ve earned my trust; I’d like to talk things over with you. I think we’re on the same page. Proteus has to remain correct, diffident, not in the least bit smug, although there could be a swift glance at Thurio: longer than I prove loyal to your grace let me not live to look upon your grace. Oh I am your loyal servant, and if I am ever disloyal, I’ll be worthy of death. Irony, much? Does Thurio suspect anything? Probably not. Proteus is insinuating, but not slimy; he’s formal, polite, circumspect, a bit dull. A gentleman.