_Try._ It is not love for me, that is clear. You would not be so cold to me, and push me away when I want to put my arms round you. It really is not fair to keep me off like this! Never mind, tell me who it is; perhaps I may help you to her; I know one ought to make oneself useful. _Ch._ Oh, you two know each other quite well; she is quite a celebrity. _Try._ Name, name, Charmides! _Ch._ Well then--Philematium. _Try._ Which? there are two of them; one in Piraeus, who has only just come there; Damyllus the governor's son is in love with her; is it that one? or the other, the one they call The Trap? _Ch._ Yes, that is she; she has caught me and got me tight, poor mouse. _Try._ And the tears were all for her? _Ch._ Even so. _Try._ Is this recent? or how long has it been going on? _Ch._ Oh, it is nothing new. I saw her first at the Dionysia; that makes seven months. _Try._ Had you a full view of her, or did you just see her face and as much as a woman of forty-five likes to show? _Ch._ Oh, come! I have her word for it she will be two-and-twenty next birthday. _Try._ Well, which are you going to trust--her word, or your own eyes? Just take a careful look at her temples some day; that is the only place where her own hair shows; all the rest is a thick wig; but at the temples, when the dye fades a little, you can easily detect the grey. But that is nothing; insist on seeing more than her face. _Ch._ Oh, but I am not favoured so far as that. _Try._ No, I should think not. She knows what the effect would be; why, she is all over--oh, talk of leopard-skins! And it was she made you cry like that, was it? I dare say, now, she was very cruel and scornful? _Ch._ Yes, she was, dear; and such a lot of money as she has from me! Just now she wants a thousand drachmas; well, I am dependent on my father, and he is very close, and I could not very well get it; so she is at home to Moschion, and will not see me. That is why you are here; I thought it might vex her. _Try._ Well, I'm sure I never never would have come if I had been told what it was for--just to vex somebody else, and that somebody old coffin-ripe Philematium! I shall go away; for that matter the third cock-crow is past. _Ch._ No, no, not so fast, Tryphaena. If it is all true--the wig, the dye, and the leopard-skin--I shall hate the sight of her. _Try._ If your mother has ever seen her at the bath, ask her. As to the age, you had better ask your grandfather about that, if he is alive. _Ch._ Well, as that is what she is like, come up close to me. Give me your arms--and your lips--and let us be friends. Philematium be hanged! H. XII _Joessa. Pythias. Lysias_