affair of such importance!
Passing me in the Forum just now, he said, "Pamphilus, you must be
married to-day: get ready; be off home." He seemed to me to say this:
"Be off this instant, and go hang yourself." I was amazed; think you
that I was able to utter a single word, or any excuse, even a
frivolous, false, {or} lame one? I was speechless. But if any one were
to ask me now what I would have done, if I had known this sooner,
{why}, I would have done any thing rather than do this. But now, what
course shall I first adopt? So many cares beset me, which rend my mind
to pieces; love, sympathy for her, the worry of this marriage; then,
respect for my father, who has ever, until now, with such an indulgent
disposition, allowed me to do whatever was agreeable to my feelings.
Ought I to oppose him? Ah me! I am in uncertainty what to do.

MYS. (_apart._) I'm wretchedly afraid how this uncertainty is to
terminate. But now there's an absolute necessity, either for him to
speak to her, or for me {to speak} to him about her. While the mind is
in suspense, it is swayed by a slight impulse one way or the other.

PAM. (_overhearing her._) Who is it speaking here? (_Seeing her._)
Mysis? Good-morrow to you.

MYS. Oh! Good-morrow to you, Pamphilus.

PAM. How is she?

MYS. Do you ask? She is oppressed with grief,[46] and on this account
the poor thing is anxious, because some time ago the marriage was
arranged for this day. Then, too, she fears this, that you may forsake
her.

PAM. Ha! could I attempt that? Could I suffer her, poor thing, to be
deceived on my account? She, who has confided to me her affection, and
her entire existence? She, whom I have held especially dear to my
feelings as my wife? Shall I suffer her mind, well and chastely
trained and tutored, to be overcome by poverty and corrupted? I will
not do it.

MYS. I should have no fear if it rested with yourself alone; but
whether you may be able to withstand compulsion--

PAM. Do you deem me so cowardly, so utterly ungrateful, inhuman, {and}
so brutish, that neither intimacy, nor affection, nor shame, can move
or admonish me to keep faith?

MYS. This one thing I know, that she is deserving that you should not
forget her.

PAM. Forget her? Oh Mysis, Mysis, at this moment are those words of
Chrysis concerning Glycerium written on my mind. Now at the point of
death, she called me; I went to her; you had withdrawn; we were alone;
she began: "My dear Pamphilus, you