here.

Clitipho-You don't consider that it is a great way from Besides, you know the ways of women: while they are bestirring themselves, and while they are making preparations, a whole year passes by.

Clinia-O Clitipho, I'm afraid—

Clitipho-Take courage. Look, here comes Dromo, together

with Syrus: they are close at hand.

[They stand aside.

Enter Syrus and Dromo, conversing at a distance

Syrus-Do you say so?

Dromo- 'Tis as I told you; but in the mean time, while we've been carrying on our discourse, these women have been left behind.

Clitipho [apart] - Don't you hear, Clinia? Your mistress is

close at hand.

Clinia [apart] - Why, yes, I do hear now at last; and I see and revive, Clitipho.

Dromo-No wonder: they are so incumbered; they are bringing a troop of female attendants with them.

Clinia [apart] - I'm undone! Whence come these female at

tendants?

Clitipho [apart] - Do you ask me?

Syrus- We ought not to have left them; what a quantity of things they are bringing!

Clinia [apart] - Ah me!

Syrus- Jewels of gold, and clothes; it's growing late too, and they don't know the way. It was very foolish of us to leave them. Just go back, Dromo, and meet them. Make haste! - why do you delay ?,

Clinia [apart]-Woe unto wretched me! hopes am I fallen!

From what high

Clitipho [apart] - What's the matter? Why, what is it that troubles you?

Clinia [apart] - Do you ask what it is? Why, don't you see? Attendants, jewels of gold, and clothes;-her too, whom I left here with only one little servant-girl. Whence do you suppose that they come ?

Clitipho [apart]-Oh! now at last I understand you.

Syrus [to himself]-Good gods! what a multitude there is! Our house will hardly hold them, I'm sure. How much they will eat! how much they will drink! what will there be more

wretched than our old gentleman? [Catching sight of Clinia and Clitipho.] But look: I espy the persons I was wanting.

Clinia [apart]-O Jupiter! Why, where is fidelity gone? While I, distractedly wandering, have abandoned my country for your sake, you in the mean time, Antiphila, have been enriching yourself, and have forsaken me in these troubles: you for whose sake I am in extreme disgrace, and have been disobedient to my father; on whose account I am now ashamed and grieved that he who used to lecture me about the manners of these women, advised me in vain, and was not able to wean me away from her; - which however I shall now do; whereas when it might have been advantageous to me to do so, I was unwilling. There is no being more wretched than I.

Syrus [to himself]- He certainly has been misled by our words which we have been speaking here.-[Aloud.] Clinia, you imagine your mistress quite different from what she really is. For both her mode of life is the same, and her disposition towards you is the same, as it always was, so far as we could form a judgment from the circumstances themselves.

Clinia - How so, prithee? For nothing in the world could I rather wish for just now, than that I have suspected this without

reason.

Syrus-This, in the first place, then (that you may not be ignorant of anything that concerns her): the old woman, who was formerly said to be her mother, was not so. She is dead; this I overheard by accident from her, as we came along, while she was telling the other one.

Clitipho-Pray, who is the other one?

Syrus-Stay: what I have begun I wish first to relate, Clitipho; I shall come to that afterwards.

Clitipho-Make haste, then.

Syrus-First of all, then, when we came to the house, Dromo knocked at the door; a certain old woman came out; when she opened the door, he directly rushed in; I followed; the old woman bolted the door, and returned to her wool. On this occasion might be known, Clinia, or else on none, in what pursuits she passed her life during your absence—when we thus came upon a female unexpectedly. For this circumstance then gave us an opportunity of judging of the course of her daily life; a thing which especially discovers what is the disposition of each individual. We found her industriously plying at the web; plainly clad

in a mourning-dress,-on account of this old woman, I suppose, who was lately dead; without golden ornaments, dressed besides just like those who only dress for themselves, and patched up with no worthless woman's trumpery. Her hair was loose, long, and thrown back negligently about her temples.- [To Clinia.] Do hold your peace.

Clinia My dear Syrus, do not without cause throw me into ecstasies, I beseech you.

Syrus-The old woman was spinning the woof: there was one little servant-girl besides; she was weaving together with them, covered with patched clothes, slovenly, and dirty with filthiness.

Clitipho -If this is true, Clinia, as I believe it is, who is there more fortunate than you? Do you mark this girl whom he speaks of as dirty and drabbish? This too is a strong indication that the mistress is out of harm's way, when her confidant is in such ill plight; for it is a rule with those who wish to gain access to the mistress, first to bribe the maid.

Clinia [to Syrus]—Go on, I beseech you; and beware of endeavoring to purchase favor by telling an untruth. What did she say when you mentioned me?

Syrus - When we told her that you had returned, and had requested her to come to you, the damsel instantly put away the web, and covered her face all over with tears; so that you might easily perceive that it really was caused by her affection for you.

Clinia

for joy!

So may the Deities bless me, I know not where I am I was so alarmed before.

Translation of Henry Thomas Riley.