to be married to a person who was attached to a courtesan, {and} who
spent his nights away from home.

MYR. (_aside._) Any cause whatever I had rather he should suspect than
the right one.

PHID. I knew much sooner than you did, Myrrhina, that he kept a
mistress; but this I never considered a crime in young men; for it is
natural to them all. For, i' faith, the time will soon come when even
he will be disgusted with himself {for doing so}. But just as you
formerly showed yourself, you have never ceased to be the same up to
the present time; in order that you might withdraw your daughter from
him, and that what I did might not hold good, one thing itself now
plainly proves how far you wished it carried out.

MYR. Do you suppose that I am so willful that I could have entertained
such feelings toward one whose mother I am, if this match had been to
our advantage?

PHID. Can you possibly foresee or judge what is to our advantage? You
have heard it of some one, perhaps, who has told you that he has seen
him coming from or going to his mistress. What then? If he has done so
with discretion, and but occasionally, is it not more kind in us to
conceal our knowledge of it, than to do our best to be aware of it, in
consequence of which he will detest us? For if he could all at once
have withdrawn himself from her with whom he had been intimate for so
many years, I should not have deemed him a man, or likely to prove a
constant husband for our daughter.

MYR. Do have done about the young man, I pray; and what you say I've
been guilty of. Go away, meet him by yourself; ask him whether he
wishes to have her as a wife or not; if so it is that he should say he
does wish it, {why}, send her {back}; but if on the other hand he does
not wish it, I have taken the best course for my {child}.

PHID. And suppose he does not wish it, and you, Myrrhina, knew him to
be in fault; {still} I was at hand, by whose advice it was proper for
these matters to be settled; therefore I am greatly offended that you
have presumed to act thus without my leave. I forbid you to attempt to
carry the child any where out of this house. But I am very foolish to
be expecting her to obey my orders. I'll go in-doors, and charge the
servants to allow it to be carried out nowhere. (_Goes into the
house._)

SCENE III.

_MYRRHINA, alone._

MYR. Upon my faith, I do believe that there is no woman living more
wretched than I; for how he would take it, if h