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. CHREM. I’ll readily forgive you doing this, of course; but, Sostrata, my easy temper prompts you to do amiss. But, whatever this {circumstance} is, by reason of which this was begun upon, proceed to tell it. SOS. As we {women} are all foolishly and wretchedly superstitious, when I delivered {the child} to her to be exposed, I drew a ring from off my finger, and ordered her to expose it, together with the child; {that} if she should die, she might not be without[74] some portion of our possessions. CHREM. That {was} right; {thereby} you proved the saving of yourself and her.[75] SOS. (_holding out the ring._) This is that ring. CHREM. Whence did you get it? SOS. From the young woman whom Bacchis brought here with her. SYR. (_aside._) Ha! CHREM. What does she say? SOS. She gave it me to keep for her, while she went to bathe. At first I paid no attention {to it}; but after I looked at it, I at once recognized it, {and} came running to you. CHREM. What do you suspect now, or have you discovered, relative to her? SOS. I don’t know; unless you inquire of herself whence she got it, if {that} can possibly be discovered. SYR. (_aside._) I’m undone! I see more hopes[76] {from this incident} than I desire. If it is so, she {certainly} must be ours. CHREM. Is this {woman} living to whom you delivered {the child}? SOS. I don’t know. CHREM. What account did she bring you at the time? SOS. That she had done as I had ordered her. CHREM. Tell me what is the woman’s name, that she may be inquired after. SOS. Philtere. SYR. (_aside._) ’Tis the very same. It’s a wonder if she isn’t found, and I lost. CHREM. Sostrata, follow me this way in-doors.