_Ge._ O, how do you do, good Chremes! _Chr._ [_crustily_]. How are you? _Ge._ How are things with you? _Chr._ One finds many changes on coming back, as is natural enough--very many. _Ge._ That's so. Have you heard about Antipho? _Chr._ The whole story. _Ge._ [_to Demipho_]. O, you've been telling him? [_To Chremes_]. It's a shame, Chremes, to be taken in that way! _Dem._ I have been discussing the situation with him. _Ge._ I've been thinking it over, too, and I think I have found a way out of it. _Chr._ How's that, Geta? _Dem._ A way out of it? _Ge._ [_in a confidential tone_]. Just now when I left you, I chanced to meet Phormio. _Chr._ Who's Phormio? _Ge._ That girl's-- _Chr._ O, I see. _Ge._ I thought I'd test the fellow, so I got him off alone, and said: "Now, Phormio, don't you see that it's better to settle this matter in a friendly way than to have a row about it? My master is a gentleman, and hates a fuss. If it wasn't for that he would have sent this girl packing, as all his friends advised him to do." _Ant._ [_aside_]. What in the world is this fellow getting at? _Ge._ "Do you say that the law will make him suffer for it if he casts her out? Oh, we've looked into that point. I tell you you'll sweat for it if you ever get into a law-suit with that man. He's a regular corker. But suppose you do win out; it's not a matter of life and death, but only of damages. Now here, just between ourselves, how much will you take, cash down, to take this girl away and make us no more trouble." _Ant._ [_aside_]. Good heavens, is the fellow crazy? _Ge._ "For I know that if you make any sort of an offer, my master is a good fellow, and will take you up in a minute." _Dem._ Who told you to say that? _Chr._ There, there, we couldn't have gained our point better. _Ant._ [_aside_]. I'm done for! _Dem._ Well, go on with your story. _Ge._ At first the fellow was wild. _Chr._ Come, come, tell us how much he wants. _Ge._ How much? Altogether too much. Said he: "Well, a matter of twelve hundred dollars would be about right." _Dem._ Confound his impudence! Has he no shame? _Ge._ That's just what I said. Said I: "What if he were marrying off an only daughter? Small gain it's been to him not to have raised a girl. One has been found to call for a dowry just the same." Well, to make a long story short, he finally said: "I've wanted from the first to marry the daughter of my old friend, as was right that I should; but, to tell you the honest truth, I've got to find a wife who will bring me in a little something, enough to pay my debts with. And even now, if Demipho is willing to pay me as much as I am getting from the other girl to whom I am engaged, I'd just as soon turn around and marry this girl of yours." _Dem._ What if he is over his head in debt? _Ge._ Says he: "I have a little farm mortgaged for two hundred dollars." _Dem._ Well, well! Let him marry her; I'll