SYR. (_apart._) She wants you, see what it is she wants; she is in a serious mood, I don’t know why; it is not without a cause-- I fear what it may be.
CHREM. What it may be? I’ faith, she’ll now surely be announcing some important trifle, with a great parade.
SOS. In the first place, this I beg of you, not to believe that I have ventured to do any thing contrary to your commands.
CHREM. Would you have me believe you in this, although so incredible? { Well,} I will believe you.
SYR. (_aside._) This excuse portends I know not what offense.
SOS. Do you remember me being pregnant, and yourself declaring to me, most peremptorily, that if I should bring forth a girl, you would not have it brought up.
CHREM. I know what you have done, you have brought it up.
SYR. (_aside._) Such is the fact, { I’m sure}: my young master has gained a loss[73] in consequence.
SOS. Not at all; but there was here an elderly woman of Corinth, of no indifferent character; to her I gave it to be exposed.
CHREM. O Jupiter! that there should be such extreme folly in { a person’s} mind.
SOS. If I have acted wrong, my { dear} Chremes, I have done { so} in ignorance.
CHREM. This, indeed, I know for certain, even if you were to deny it, that in every thing you both speak and act ignorantly and foolishly: how many blunders you disclose in this { single} affair! For, in the first place, then, if you had been disposed to obey my orders, { the child} ought to have been dispatched; { you ought} not in words to have feigned her death, { and} in reality to have left hopes of her surviving. But that I pass over; compassion, maternal affection, I allow it. But how finely you did provide for the future! What was your meaning? Do reflect. It’s clear, beyond a doubt, that your daughter was betrayed by you to this old woman, either that through you she might make a living by her, or that she might be sold in open market as { a slave}. I suppose you reasoned thus: “any thing is enough, if only her life is saved:” what are you to do with those who understand neither law, nor right and justice? { Be it} for better { or} for worse, be it for them or against them, they see nothing except just what they please.
SOS. My { dear} Chremes, I have done wrong, I own; I am convinced. Now this I beg of you; inasmuch as you are more advanced in years than I, be so much the more ready to forgive; so that your justice may be some protection for my weakness.