SYR. I’ faith, I’m saying the truth, as it appears {to me}. CLIT. May I not go near them? CHREM. How now-- pray, is there but one way[69] of going near {them}? SYR. (_aside._) Confusion! He’ll be betraying himself before I’ve got the money. (_Aloud._) Chremes, will you give attention to me, who am but a silly person? CHREM. What am I to do? SYR. Bid {him} go somewhere {out of the way}. CLIT. Where am I to go? SYR. Where you please; leave the place to them; be off and take a walk. CLIT. Take a walk! where? SYR. Pshaw! Just as if there was no place {to walk in}. Why, then, go this way, that way, where you will. CHREM. He says right, I’m of his opinion. CLIT. May the Gods extirpate you, Syrus, for thrusting me away from here. SYR. (_aside to CLITIPHO._) Then do you for the future keep those hands {of yours} within bounds. (_Exit CLITIPHO._) Really {now} (_to CHREMES_), what do you think? What do you imagine will become of him next, unless, so far as the Gods afford you the means, you watch him, correct {and} admonish him? CHREM. I’ll take care of that. SYR. But now, master, he must be looked after by you. CHREM. It shall be done. SYR. If you are wise,-- for now he minds me less and less {every day}. CHREM. What {say} you? What have you done, Syrus, about that matter which I was mentioning to you a short time since? Have you any {plan} that suits {you}, or not yet even? SYR. You mean the design {upon Menedemus}? I have; I have just hit upon one. CHREM. You are a clever fellow; what is it? Tell me. SYR. I’ll tell {you}; but, as one matter arises, out of another---- CHREM. Why, what is it, Syrus? SYR. This Courtesan is a very bad woman. CHREM. So she seems. SYR. Aye, if you did but know. O shocking! just see what she is hatching. There was a certain old woman here from Corinth,-- this {Bacchis} lent her a thousand silver drachmæ. CHREM. What then? SYR. She is {now} dead: she has left a daughter, a young girl. She has been left with this {Bacchis} as a pledge for that sum. CHREM. I understand {you}. SYR. She has brought her hither along with her, her {I mean} who is now with your wife.[70] CHREM. What then? SYR. She is soliciting Clinia at once to advance her this {money}; she says, however, that this {girl} is to be a security, that, at a future time, she will repay the thousand pieces of money. CHREM. And would she really be a security?[71] SYR. Dear me, is it to be doubted? I think so. CHREM. What then do you intend doing? SYR. What, I? I shall go to Menedemus; I’ll tell him she is a captive from Caria, rich, and of noble family; if he redeems her, there will be a considerable profit in this transaction. CHREM. You are in an error. SYR. Why so? CHREM. I’ll now answer you for Menedemus-- I will not purchase her. SYR. What is it you say? Do speak more agreeably to our wishes. CHREM. But there is no occasion. SYR. No occasion? CHREM. Certainly not, i’ faith. SYR. How so, I wonder?