LACH. (_accosting him._) Phidippus, you meet me at a lucky moment, just at the very time. PHID. What’s the matter? PAM. (_aside._) What answer shall I make them, or in what manner keep this secret? LACH. (_to PHIDIPPUS._) Tell your daughter that Sostrata is going into the country, that she may not now be afraid of returning home. PHID. Alas! your wife has been guilty of no fault in this affair; all this {mischief} has originated in my wife Myrrhina. PAM. (_aside._) They are changing sides. PHID. ’Tis she that causes our disturbances, Laches. PAM. (_aside._) So long as I don’t take her back, let her cause as much disturbance as she pleases. PHID. I, Pamphilus, could really wish, if it were possible, this alliance between us to be lasting; but if you are otherwise inclined, {still} take the child.[55] PAM. (_aside._) He has discovered that she has been brought to bed. I’m undone! LACH. The child! What child? PHID. We have had a grandson born to us; for my daughter was removed from you in a state of pregnancy, and yet never before this day did I know that she was pregnant. LACH. So may the Gods prosper me, you bring good tidings, and I am glad a child has been born, and that she is safe: but what {kind of} woman have you for a wife, or of what sort of a temper, that we should have been kept in ignorance of this so long? I can not sufficiently express how disgraceful this conduct appears to me. PHID. This conduct does not vex me less than yourself, Laches. PAM. (_aside._) Even if it had just now been a matter of doubt to me, it is so no longer, since the child of another man is to accompany her. LACH. Pamphilus, there is no room now for deliberation for you in this matter. PAM. (_aside._) I’m undone! LACH. (_to PAMPHILUS._) We were often longing to see the day on which there should be one to call you father; it has come to pass. I return thanks to the Gods. PAM. (_aside._) I am ruined! LACH. Take home your wife, and don’t oppose my will. PAM. Father, if she had wished to have children by me, or to continue to be my wife, I am quite certain she would not have concealed from me what I find she has concealed. Now, as I find that her mind is estranged from me, and think that there would be no agreement between us in future, why should I take her back? LACH. The young woman has done what her mother persuaded her. Is that to be wondered at? Do you suppose you can find any woman who is free from fault? Or is it that men have no failings? PHID. Do you yourselves now consider, Laches, and you, Pamphilus, whether it is most advisable for you to leave her or take her back. What your wife may do, is not in my control. Under neither circumstance will you meet with any difficulty from me. But what are we to do with the child? LACH. You do ask an absurd question; whatever happens, send him back his {child} of course, that we may bring it up as ours. PAM. (_in a low voice._) A child which the father has abandoned, am I to rear?