PHID. What are you to do? I am of opinion that first we ought to go to this mistress of {his}. Let us use entreaties with her; {then} let us rebuke her; and at last, let us very seriously threaten her, if she gives him any encouragement in future. LACH. I will do as you advise. (_Turning to an ATTENDANT._) Ho, there, boy! run to the house of Bacchis here, our neighbor; desire her, in my name, to come hither. (_Exit ATTENDANT._) And you, I further entreat, to give me your assistance in this affair. PHID. Well, I have already said, and I now say again to the same effect, Laches, I wish this alliance between us to continue, if by any means it possibly may, which I trust will be the case. But should you like[56] me to be with you while you meet her? LACH. Why yes; but first go and get some one as a nurse for the child. (_Exit PHIDIPPUS._ SCENE VIII. _Enter BACCHIS, attended by her WOMEN._ BACCH. (_to her WOMEN._) It is not for nothing that Laches now desires to speak with me; and, i’ faith, I am not very far from mistaken in making a guess what it is he wants me for. LACH. (_to himself._) I must take care that I don’t, through anger, miss gaining in this quarter what I {otherwise} might, and that I don’t do any thing which hereafter it would have been better I had not done. I’ll accost her. (_Accosts her._) Bacchis, good-morrow to you! BACCH. Good-morrow to you, Laches! LACH. Troth, now, Bacchis, I suppose you somewhat wonder what can be my reason for sending the lad to fetch you out of doors. BACCH. Upon my faith, I am even in some anxiety as well, when I reflect what I am, lest the name of my calling should be to my prejudice; for my behavior I can easily defend. LACH. If you speak the truth, you will be in no danger, woman, from me, for I am now of that age that it is not meet for me to receive forgiveness for a fault; for that reason do I the more carefully attend to every particular, that I may not act with rashness; for if you now do, or intend to do, that which is proper for deserving {women} to do, it would be unjust for me, in my ignorance, to offer an injury to you, when undeserving of it. BACCH. On my word, great is the gratitude that I ought to feel toward you for such conduct; for he who, after committing an injury, would excuse himself, would profit me but little. But what is the matter? LACH. You admit my son, Pamphilus, to your house. BACCH. Ah! LACH. Just let me {speak}: before he was married to this woman, I tolerated your amour. Stay! I have not yet said to you what I intended. He has now got a wife: look out for another person more to be depended on, while you have time to deliberate; for neither will he be of this mind all his life, nor, i’ faith, will you be {always} of your present age. BACCH. Who is it says this? LACH. His mother-in-law. BACCH. What! that I-- LACH. That you {do}: and she has taken away her daughter; and for that reason, has wished secretly to destroy the child that has been born.