_Simo._ O Jupiter! what do I hear? it is all over, if what she says be truth. _Lesbia._ What you tell me, is a proof of a good disposition. _Mysis._ His is most excellent; but now let us go, lest we should be wanted before we arrive. _Lesbia._ I follow you. [_They go in._ _Davus._ [_aside._] Here’s a pretty disaster! how shall I be able to remedy this evil? [_Simo to himself._] What’s this? Is he so mad? A foreigner too! [142]phoo! now I see through it all! how simple I must be not to discover it at first. _Davus._ What does he say he has discovered? _Simo._ Davus, that indefatigable contriver of mischief, is the chief mover of all this roguery. They pretend the birth of a child, that they may deter Chremes from the match. [_Glycera cries out from the house._] O Juno Lucina, help! save me! I beseech thee[143]. _Simo._ Hey day! what already! ha! ha! ha! how preposterous! the moment she finds out that I am within hearing, she begins to cry out. Why, Davus, your incidents are not well [144]timed at all, man. _Davus._ Mine! _Simo._ Have your actors forgotten their parts? _Davus._ I don’t understand you really, Sir. _Simo._ What an object of derision! what a laughing-stock [145]would this rascal have made of me, if he had played off this fine trick in a real marriage: but now he is shipwrecked whilst I am safe in port. SCENE II. LESBIA, SIMO, DAVUS. _Lesbia._ Hitherto, Archillis, she has all the usual symptoms of doing well. Now, first, let her be bathed[146]: and, after that, give her the drink, in the quantities I directed. I shall return immediately. Upon my life, Pamphilus has got a very pretty boy. Heaven grant he may live to make a good man! for his father is a worthy youth, who would not wrong this innocent young creature. [_Exit._ _Simo._ (_to Davus._) Could any one, who knew you, doubt for a moment that you were the contriver of this? _Davus._ Contriver! of what, Sir? _Simo._ The midwife never gave her orders about the treatment of her patient while she was in the house: but, after she was come out of doors, she bawls from the street to those within. O Davus, am I so despised by you? or do I appear to you a fit subject to practise such barefaced tricks upon? The least you could have done, was to have acted cautiously, that I might, at any rate, seem to be feared, if I had discovered it. _Davus._ (_aside._) By Jupiter, he cheats himself: I am sure I’ve no hand in it. _Simo._ Did I not warn you? Did I not threaten you with the consequences of this? But what care you? ’Twas all to no purpose! Do you think that I really believe that Glycera has borne a child to Pamphilus? _Davus._ I see his error now, and know my cue. _Simo._ Why don’t you speak? _Davus._ What! not believe it! as if you had not been told of all this before!