GETA (_continuing._) Ah wretched me! I am scarcely master of my senses, I am so inflamed with anger. There is nothing that I would like better than for all that family to be thrown in my way, that I might give vent to all {my} wrath upon them while this wound is still fresh. I could be content with any punishment, so I might only wreak my vengeance on them. First, I would stop the breath of the old fellow himself who gave being to this monster; then as for his prompter, Syrus, out upon him! how I would tear him piecemeal! I would snatch him by the middle up aloft, and dash him head downward upon the earth, so that with his brains he would bestrew the road: I would pull out the eyes of the young fellow himself, {and} afterward hurl him headlong {over some precipice}. The others I would rush upon, drive, drag, crush, and trample them {under foot}. But why do I delay at once to acquaint my mistress with this calamity? (_Moves as if going._) SOS. (_to CANTHARA._) Let us call him back. Geta---- GETA. Well-- leave me alone,[47] whoever you are. SOS. ’Tis I,-- Sostrata. GETA (_turning round._) Why, where are you? You are the very person I am looking for. I was in quest of you; it’s very fortunate you have met me. SOS. What’s the matter? Why are you trembling? GETA. Alas! Alas! SOS. My {dear} Geta, why in such haste? Do take breath. GETA. Quite-- (_pauses._) SOS. Why, what means this “quite”? GETA. Undone-- It’s all over with us. SOS. Say, then, I entreat you, what is the matter. GETA. Now---- SOS. What “now,” Geta? GETA. Æschinus---- SOS. What about him? GETA. Has abandoned our family. SOS. Then I am undone! Why so? GETA. He has attached himself to another woman. SOS. Woe unto wretched me! GETA. And he makes no secret of it; he himself has carried her off openly from a procurer. SOS. Are you quite sure of this? GETA. Quite sure; I saw it myself, Sostrata, with these same eyes. SOS. Ah wretched me! What is one now to believe, or whom believe? Our own Æschinus, the {very} life of us all, in whom all our hopes and comforts were centred! Who used to swear he could never live a single day without her! Who used to say, that he would place the infant on his father’s knees,[48] {and} thus entreat that he might be allowed to make her his wife! GETA. {Dear} mistress, forbear weeping, and rather consider what must be done for the future in this matter. Shall we submit to it, or shall we tell it to any person? CAN. Pooh, pooh! are you in your senses, my {good} man? Does this seem to you a business to be made known to any one?