Chapter 143

_PARMENO alone._

It were not good That I should follow him into the house: For all our family are odious to them. That's plain from their denying Sostrata Admittance yesterday.--And if by chance Her illness should increase (which Heav'n forbid, For my poor master's sake!), they'll cry directly, "Sostrata's servant came into the house:" Swear,--"that I brought the plague along with me, Put all their lives in danger, and increas'd Philumena's distemper."--By which means My mistress will be blam'd, and I be beaten.