and what figure a great donkey like you made,
holding a fan!

CHAE. (_continuing._) Hardly had she said this, when all, in a moment,
betook themselves off: away they went to bathe, and chattered
aloud;[83] just as the way is when masters are absent. Meanwhile,
sleep overtook the damsel; I slily looked askance[84] through the
fan;[85] this way (_showing how_): at the same time I looked round in
all directions, to see whether all was quite safe. I saw that it was.
I bolted the door.

ANT. What then?

CHAE. Eh? What then, {you} simpleton?

ANT. I own I am.

CHAE. Was I to let slip the opportunity offered me, so excellent, so
short-lived,[86] so longed for, so unexpected. In that case, i'faith,
I really should have been the person I was pretending to be.

ANT. Troth, you certainly are in the right; but, meantime, what has
been arranged about the club-entertainment?

CHAE. All's ready.

ANT. You are a clever band; but where? At your house?

CHAE. No, at Discus's, our freedman.

ANT. That's a long way off.

CHAE. Then let's make so much the greater haste.

ANT. Change your dress.

CHAE. Where am I to change it? I'm at a loss; for at present I'm an
exile from home; I'm afraid of my brother, lest he should be in-doors:
and then again of my father, lest he should have returned from the
country by this.

ANT. Let's go to my house; there is the nearest place for you to
change.

CHAE. You say right. Let's be off; besides, I want to take counsel with
you about this girl, by what means I may be able to secure the future
possession of her.

ANT. Very well. (_Exeunt._

ACT THE FOURTH.

SCENE I.

_Enter DORIAS, with a casket in her hand._

DORIAS (_to herself._) So may the Gods bless me, but from what I have
seen, I'm terribly afraid that this mad fellow will be guilty of some
disturbance to-day or of some violence to Thais. For when this young
man, the brother of the damsel, arrived, she begged the Captain to
order him to be admitted; he immediately began to get into a passion,
and yet didn't dare refuse; Thais still insisted that he would invite
the man in. This she did for the sake of detaining him; because there
was no opportunity {just then} of telling him what she wanted to
disclose about her sister. He was invited in, and took his seat. Then
she entered into discourse with him. But the Captain, fancying it was
a rival brought before his {very} eyes, wanted in his turn to mortify
her: "Hark