ock'd? What, not a word! Suppose
I banter him a little. He deserves it,
For never trusting this affair to me. (_Aside._)
--Why don't you speak?

AESCH. Not I, as I remember. (_Disordered._)

MICIO. No, I dare say, not you: for I was wond'ring
What business could have brought you here.--He blushes.
All's safe, I find. (_Aside._)

AESCH. (_recovering._) But prithee, tell me, Sir,
What brought you here?

MICIO. No business of my own.
But a friend drew me hither from the Forum,
To be his advocate.

AESCH. In what?

MICIO. I'll tell you.
This house is tenanted by some poor women,
Whom, I believe, you know not;--Nay, I'm sure on't,
For 'twas but lately they came over hither.

AESCH. Well?

MICIO. A young woman and her mother.

AESCH. Well?

MICIO. The father's dead.--This friend of mine, it seems,
Being her next relation, by the law
Is forc'd to marry her.

AESCH. Confusion! (_Aside._)

MICIO. How?

AESCH. Nothing.--Well?--pray go on, Sir!----

MICIO. He's now come
To take her home, for he is of Miletus.

AESCH. How! take her home with him?

MICIO. Yes, take her home.

AESCH. What, to Miletus?

MICIO. Aye.

AESCH. Oh torture! (_Aside._)-- Well?
What say the women?

MICIO. Why, what should they? Nothing.
Indeed the mother has devis'd a tale
About her daughter's having had a child
By some one else, but never mentions whom:
His claim, she says, is prior; and my friend
Ought not to have her.

AESCH. Well? and did not this
Seem a sufficient reason?

MICIO. No.

AESCH. No, Sir?
And shall this next relation take her off?

MICIO. Aye, to be sure: why not?

AESCH. Oh barbarous, cruel!
And to speak plainly, Sir--ungenerous!

MICIO. Why so?

AESCH. Why so, Sir?--What d'ye think
Will come of him, the poor unhappy youth
Who was connected with her first--who still
Loves her, perhaps, as dearly as his life;----
When he shall see her torn out of his arms,
And borne away forever?--Oh shame, shame!

MICIO. Where is the shame on't?--Who betroth'd, who gave her?
When was she married? and to whom? Where is he,
And wherefore did he wed another's right?

AESCH. Was it for her, a girl of such an age,
To sit at home, expecting till a kinsman
Came, nobody knows whence, to marry her?
--This, Sir, it was your business to have said,
And to have dwelt on it.

MICIO. Ridiculous!
Should I have pleaded against him to whom
I came an advocate?--But after all,
What's this affair to us? or, what have we