hereafter, purchased at my own expense.[25] ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I. _Enter PHILOTIS[26] and SYRA._ PHIL. I’faith, Syra, you can find but very few lovers who prove constant to their mistresses. For instance, how often did this Pamphilus swear to Bacchis-- how solemnly, so that any one might have readily believed him-- that he never would take home a wife so long as she lived. Well now, he is married. SYR. Therefore, for that very reason, I earnestly both advise and entreat you to take pity upon no one, but plunder, fleece, {and} rend every man you lay hold of. PHIL. What! Hold no one exempt? SYR. No one; for not a single one of them, rest assured, comes to you without making up his mind, by means of his flatteries, to gratify his passion with you at the least possible expense. Will you not, pray, plot against them in return? PHIL. And yet, upon my faith, it is unfair to be the same to all. SYR. What! unfair to take revenge on your enemies? or, for them to be caught in the very way they try to catch you? Alas! wretched me! why do not your age and beauty belong to me, or else these sentiments {of mine} to you? SCENE II. _Enter PARMENO from the house of LACHES._ PAR. (_at the door, speaking to SCIRTUS within._) If the old man should be asking for me, do you say that I have just gone to the harbor to inquire about the arrival of Pamphilus. Do you hear what I say, Scirtus? If he asks for me, then you are to say {so}; if he does not, {why}, say nothing at all; so that at another time I may be able to employ that excuse as a new one. (_Comes forward, and looking around._)--But is it my dear Philotis that I see? How has she come {here}? (_Accosting her._) Philotis heartily good-morrow. PHIL. O, good-morrow, Parmeno. SYR. By my troth, good-morrow, Parmeno. PAR. I’faith, Syra, the same to you. Philotis, tell me, where have you been enjoying yourself so long? PHIL. For my part, indeed, I have been far from enjoying myself, in leaving this place for Corinth with a most brutal captain; for two whole years, there, had I to put up with him to my sorrow. PAR. I’troth, I fancy that regret for Athens full oft possessed you, and that you thought but poorly of your foresight. PHIL. It can not be expressed how impatient I was to return hither, get rid of the captain, and see yourselves here, that after our old fashion I might at my ease enjoy the merry-makings among you; for there it was not allowed {me} to speak, except at {the moment} prescribed, {and} on such subjects as he chose. PAR. (_sarcastically._) I don’t think it was gallant in the captain to place a restraint on your tongue. PHIL. But what is this piece of business that Bacchis has just now been telling me in-doors here? (_pointing to her house._) {A thing} I never supposed would come to pass, that he, in her lifetime, could possibly prevail upon his feelings to take a wife. PAR. To take, indeed! PHIL. Why, look you, has he not taken one?