Page:Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (1870).djvu/56

38

Cha. Cease now to delude

With further words.

Pam. Charinus, what means this?

Cha. I told you I adored her—and away.

You love her also—my unhappy chance

To judge of other's natures by my own.

Pam. Wrong—you are wrong.

Cha. Was not your happiness

Sufficiently complete, unless you had

Another's misery to triumph o'er.

Go, wed her!

Pam. Wed her? Ah! you do not know

The misery in which that carnifex

Of mine has now involved me hopelessly!

Cha. Not wonderful, when he obeys his lord.

Pam. You would not say so if you knew the truth,

Nor if you knew my heart.

Cha. I know them well.

You long opposed your father: he was wroth,

So wrathful, that to-day you have submitted,

Consenting to espouse.

Pam. It was not so.

You do not know the truth: this marriage was

Only a feint—a stratagem to prove me—

There was no wife.

Cha. And you coerced yourself.

Pam. Wait, hear the rest.

Cha. The rest is that you marry.

Pam. Why will you kill me with your bitter thoughts?

He never ceased to press me to this deed,

Submission to my father—and to yield,

And I at last consented.