MENE. Give me leave: that I may take No respite from my toil. CHREM. I'll not allow it. (_Taking away the rakes._) MENE. Ah, you do wrong. CHREM. What, and so heavy too! (_Weighing them in his hand._) MENE. Such my desert. CHREM. Now speak. (_Laying down the rakes._) MENE. One only son I have.--_Have_, did I say?--_Had_ I mean, Chremes. Have I or no, is now uncertain. CHREM. Wherefore? MENE. That you shall know. An old Corinthian woman Now sojourns here, a stranger in these parts, And very poor. It happen'd, of her daughter My son became distractedly enamor'd;---- E'en to the brink of marriage; and all this Unknown to me: which I no sooner learn'd Than I began to deal severely with him, Not as a young and love-sick mind requir'd, But in the rough and usual way of fathers. Daily I chid him; crying, "How now, Sir! Think you that you shall hold these courses long, And I your father living?--Keep a mistress, As if she were your wife!--You are deceiv'd, If you think that, and do not know me, Clinia. While you act worthily, you're mine; if not, I shall act toward you worthy of myself. All this arises from mere idleness. I, at your age, ne'er thought of love; but went To seek my fortune in the wars in Asia, And there acquir'd in arms both wealth and glory." --In short, things came to such a pass, the youth, O'ercome with hearing still the self-same thing, And wearied out with my reproaches; thinking, Age and experience had enabled me To judge his interest better than himself, Went off to serve the king in Asia, Chremes. CHREM. How say you? MENE. Stole away three months ago, Without my knowledge. CHREM. Both have been to blame: And yet this enterprise bespeaks a mind, Modest and manly.