CHÆ. Upon my faith, this is the fact. Now, then, let your promises be made good, if you please, or if indeed the affair is a deserving one for you to exert your energies upon. The girl isn’t like our girls, whom their mothers are anxious to have with shoulders kept down, {and} chests well girthed,[49] that they may be slender. If one is a little inclined to plumpness, they declare that she’s training for a boxer,[50] {and} stint her food; although their constitutions are good, by their treatment they make them as slight as bulrushes; and so for that reason they are admired, {forsooth}. PAR. What sort of a girl is this one of yours? CHÆ. A new style of beauty. PAR. (_ironically._) Astounding! CHÆ. Her complexion genuine,[51] her flesh firm and full of juiciness.[52] PAR. Her age? CHÆ. Her age? Sixteen. PAR. The very flower of youth.[53] CHÆ. Do you make it your care to obtain her for me either by force, stealth, or entreaty; so that I only gain her, it matters not how to me. PAR. Well, but to whom does the damsel belong? CHÆ. {That}, i’faith, I don’t know. PAR. Whence did she come? CHÆ. {That}, just as much. PAR. Where does she live? CHÆ. Nor yet do I know that. PAR. Where did you see her? CHÆ. In the street. PAR. How did you come to lose her? CHÆ. Why, that’s what I was just now fretting myself about; and I do not believe that there is one individual to whom all good luck is a greater stranger than to myself. What ill fortune this is! I’m utterly undone! PAR. What’s the matter? CHÆ. Do you ask me? Do you know Archidemides, my father’s kinsman and years’-mate? PAR. Why not? CHÆ. He, while I was in full pursuit of her, met me. PAR. Unseasonably, upon my faith. CHÆ. Aye, unhappily, rather; for other {ordinary} matters are to be called “unseasonable,” Parmeno. It would be safe for me to make oath that I have not seen him for fully these six or seven months, until just now, when I least wanted, and there was the least occasion. Come now! isn’t this like a fatality? What do you say? PAR. Extremely {so}. CHÆ. At once he came running up to me, from a considerable distance, stooping, palsied, hanging his lip, {and} wheezing. “Halloo, Chærea! halloo!” said he; “I’ve something to say to you.” I stopped. “Do you know what {it is} I want with you?” {said he}. “Say on,” {said I}. “To-morrow my cause comes on,” {said he}. “What then?” “Be sure and tell your father to remember and be my advocate[54] in the morning.” In talking of this, an hour elapsed.[55] I inquired if he wanted any thing {else}. “That’s all,” said he. I left him. When I looked in this direction for the damsel, she had that very instant turned thia way down this street of ours. PAR. (_aside._) It’s a wonder if he doesn’t mean her who has just now been made a present of to {Thais here}. CHÆ. When I got here, she was nowhere to be seen. PAR. Some attendants, I suppose, were accompanying the girl? CHÆ. Yes; a Parasite, and a female servant.