Page:Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (1870).djvu/25

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And all the world would praise me open-mouthed,

Because I had a son of such good sense.

And so it followed. Chremes hears his praise,

And straightway comes to offer me his child,

His only child—with an enormous dowry—

As wife to Pamphilus. I was well pleased,

Accepted—and the nuptials fall to-day.

Sos. Why, then, delay them in reality?

Sim. For this—our neighbour Chrysis died.

Sos. I breathe again—I was in mortal fear

Of that same Chrysis.

Sim. And when she was dead

My son—and all her other clientage—

Performed the funeral rites. I marked him sad,

I saw him weep—and I rejoiced and thought

If he grieve thus for one who is a stranger,

How would he grieve for one allied to him,

How weep for me his father—they were signs

To me of an ingenuous human soul,

And so to end my tale, to please my son,

Neither suspecting evil—I resolved

That I would join her funeral rites myself.

Sos. What followed then?

Sim. All in good time. They brought

Her body forth, we went. Amidst the women

That followed there—there was a girl—a girl

Of most exceeding beauty—

Sos. Ah! no doubt!

Sim. Face, Sosia, and demeanour, exquisite,

Modest, in deep affliction. Marking her

I asked the other women in the train

Her name, and learnt she sister was to Chrysis.