Chapter 74

_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 CLITIPHO._

CLIT. Clinia!

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

CLIT. 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.

CLIT. What, still foreboding, ere you know the truth?

CLIN. Had there been no untoward circumstance, They had return'd already

CLIT. Patience, Clinia! They'll be here presently.

CLIN. Presently! but when?

CLIT. 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 Clitipho, I fear----

CLIT. Take courage; see, Dromo and Syrus!