Part 48 (2/2)

_Enter CLINIA._

CLIN. Had my affairs in love been prosperous, They had, I know, been here long since: but, ah, I fear she's fall'n from virtue in my absence: So many things concur to prove it so, My mind misgives me; opportunity, The place, her age, an infamous old mother, Under whose governance she lives, to whom 'Naught but gain's precious.

_To him c.l.i.tIPHO._

c.l.i.t. Clinia!

CLIN. Woe is me! (_To himself._)

c.l.i.t. Take heed, lest some one issue from your father's, And chance to see you here.

CLIN. I will: but yet My mind forebodes I know not what of ill.

c.l.i.t. What, still foreboding, ere you know the truth?

CLIN. Had there been no untoward circ.u.mstance, They had return'd already

c.l.i.t. Patience, Clinia!

They'll be here presently.

CLIN. Presently! but when?

c.l.i.t. Consider, 'tis a long way off: and then You know the ways of women; to set off, And trick their persons out, requires an age.

CLIN. Oh c.l.i.tipho, I fear----

c.l.i.t. Take courage; see, Dromo and Syrus!

SCENE II.

_Enter SYRUS and DROMO, conversing at a distance._

SYRUS. Say you?

DROMO. Even so.

SYRUS. But while we chat, the girls are left behind.

c.l.i.t. (_listening._) Girls, Clinia! do you hear?

CLIN. I hear, I see, And now, at last, I'm happy, c.l.i.tipho.

DROMO (_to SYRUS_). Left behind! troth, no wonder: so enc.u.mber'd; A troop of waiting-women at her heels!

CLIN. (_listening_). Confusion! Whence should she have waiting-women?

c.l.i.t. How can I tell?

SYRUS (_to DROMO_). We ought not to have dropp'd them.

They bring a world of baggage!

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