Scene V
Enter Laches.
Lach. I have been standing at a distance, wife,
And overheard your conversation with him.
You have done wisely to subdue your temper,
And freely to comply with what, perhaps,
Hereafter must be done.
Sostra. And let it be!
Lach. Now then retire with me into the country:
There I shall bear with you, and you with me.
Sostra. I hope we shall.
Lach. Go in then, and pack up
The necessaries you would carry with you.
Away!
Sostra. I shall obey your orders.
Exit.
Pam. Father!
Lach. Well, Pamphilus?
Pam. My mother leave the town?
By no means.
Lach. Why?
Pam. Because I’m yet uncertain
What I shall do about my wife.
Lach. How’s that?
What would you do but take her home again?
Pam. ’Tis what I wish for, and can scarce forbear.
But I’ll not alter what I first design’d.
What’s best I’ll follow: and I’m well convinc’d
No other means remain to make them friends,
But that I should not take her home again.
Pam. ’Tis what I wish for, and can scarce forbear it.
But I’ll not alter what I first design’d.
What’s best I’ll follow: and I’m well convinc’d
That there’s no other way to make them friends,
But that I should not take her home again.
Lach. You don’t know that: but ’tis of no importance
Whether they’re friends or not, when Sostrata
Is gone into the country. We old folks
Are odious to the young. We’d best retire.
In short, we’re grown a by-word, Pamphilus,
“The old man and old woman.”—But I see
Phidippus coming in good time. Let’s meet him!