CHREM. (_in alarm._) Ha! NAUS. My husband, pray what means this disturbance? PHOR. (_to CHREMES._) Oh, oh, why are you mute now? NAUS. Who is this man? Won’t you answer me? PHOR. What, he to answer you? who, upon my faith, doesn’t know where he is. CHREM. (_to NAUSISTRATA._) Take care how you believe that fellow in any thing. PHOR. (_to NAUSISTRATA._) Go, touch him; if he isn’t in a cold sweat all over, why then kill me. CHREM. ’Tis nothing at all. NAUS. What is it, then, that this person is talking about? PHOR. You shall know directly; listen {now}. CHREM. Are you resolved to believe him? NAUS. Pray, how can I believe him, when he has told me nothing? PHOR. The poor creature is distracted from fright. NAUS. It isn’t for nothing, i’ faith, that you are in such a fright. CHREM. What, I in a fright? PHOR. (_to CHREMES._) All right, of course: since you are not in a fright at all, and this is nothing at all that I’m going to tell, do you relate it. DEM. Villain, is he to relate it at your request? PHOR. (_to DEMIPHO._) Come now, you’ve managed nicely for your brother. NAUS. My husband, will you not tell me? CHREM. But-- NAUS. But what? CHREM. There’s no need to tell you. PHOR. {Not} for you, indeed; but there’s need for her to know it. At Lemnos-- CHREM. (_starting._) Ha! what are you doing? DEM. (_to PHORMIO._) Won’t you hold your tongue? PHOR. (_to NAUSISTRATA._) Unknown to you---- CHREM. Ah me! PHOR. He married another---- NAUS. My {dear} sir, may the Gods forbid it! PHOR. Such is the fact. NAUS. Wretch that I am, I’m undone! PHOR. And had a daughter by her, too, while you never dreamed of it. CHREM. What are we to do? NAUS. O immortal Gods! --a disgraceful and a wicked misdeed! DEM. (_aside, to CHREMES._) It’s all up {with} you. PHOR. Was ever any thing now more ungenerously done? Your men, who, when they come to their wives, then become incapacitated from old age. NAUS. Demipho, I appeal to you; for with that man it is irksome for me to speak. Were these those frequent journeys and long visits at Lemnos? Was this the lowness of prices that reduced our rents? DEM. Nausistrata, I don’t deny that in this matter he has been deserving of censure; but still, it may be pardoned. PHOR. (_apart._) He is talking to the dead. DEM. For he did this neither through neglect or aversion to yourself. About fifteen years since, in a drunken fit, he had an intrigue with this poor woman, of whom this girl was born, nor did he ever touch her afterward. She is dead and gone: the {only} difficulty that remained in this matter. Wherefore, I do beg of you, that, as in other things, you’ll bear this with patience.