DEM. (_apart._) Very fine-- if you would wish a thing to be nicely managed, intrust it to this {fellow}. SYR. (_overhearing him._) Ha, Demea! I didn’t see you; how goes it? DEM. How should it go? I can not enough wonder at your mode of living {here}. SYR. Why, really silly enough, and, to speak without disguise, {altogether} absurd. (_Calls at the door of MICIO’S house._) Dromo, clean the rest of the fish; let the largest conger-eel play a little in the water; when I come {back} it shall be boned;[49] not before. DEM. Is profligacy like this---- SYR. As for myself, it isn’t to my taste, and I often exclaim {against it}. (_Calls at the door._) Stephanio, take care that the salt fish is well soaked. DEM. Ye Gods, by our trust in you! is he doing this for any purpose of his own, or does he think it creditable to ruin {his} son? Wretch that I am! methinks I already see the day when {Æschinus} will be running away for want, to serve somewhere or other as a soldier.[50] SYR. O Demea! that is wisdom {indeed},-- not only to look at the present moment, but also to look forward to what’s to come. DEM. Well-- is this Music-girl still with you? SYR. Why, yes, she’s in-doors. DEM. How now-- is he going to keep her at home? SYR. I believe so; such is his madness! DEM. Is it possible? SYR. An imprudent lenity in his father, and a vicious indulgence. DEM. Really, I am ashamed and grieved at my brother. SYR. Demea! between you there is a great-- I do not say it because you are here present-- a too great difference. You are, every bit of you, nothing but wisdom; he a {mere} dreamer. Would you indeed have suffered that son of yours to act thus? DEM. I, suffer him? Would I not have smelt it out six months before he attempted it? SYR. Need I be told by you of your foresight? DEM. I pray he may only continue the same he is at present! SYR. Just as each person wishes his son to be, so he turns out. DEM. What news of him? Have you seen him to-day? SYR. What, your son? (_Aside._) I’ll pack him off into the country. (_To DEMEA._) I fancy he’s busy at the farm long before this. DEM. Are you quite sure he is there? SYR. What! --when I saw him part of the way {myself}---- DEM. Very good. I was afraid he might be loitering here. SYR. And extremely angry too. DEM. Why so? SYR. He attacked his brother in the Forum with strong language about this Music-girl. DEM. Do you really say so? SYR. Oh dear, he didn’t at all mince the matter; for just as the money was being counted out, the gentleman came upon us by chance, {and} began exclaiming, “Oh Æschinus, that you should perpetrate these enormities! that you should be guilty of actions {so} disgraceful to our family!” DEM. Oh, I shall weep for joy. SYR. “By this you are not squandering your money {only}, but your reputation.” DEM. May he be preserved to me! I trust he will be like his forefathers. (_Weeping._) SYR. (_aside._) Heyday! DEM. Syrus, he is full of these maxims.