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[Textpart 2]
May the Gods and Goddesses confound you, Laches, for vexing him so!
PARMENO
To cut the matter short, he took home his wife. On the first night, he did not touch the girl; the night that followed that, not a bit the more.
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PHILOTIS
What is it you tell me? A young man go to bed with a virgin, intoxicated to boot, and able to restrain himiself from touching her!
You do not say what’s likely; nor do I believe it to be the truth.
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PARMENO
I suppose it does seem so to you, for no one comes to you unless he is eager for you; but he had married her against his will.
PHILOTIS
After this, what followed?
PARMENO
In a very few days after, Pamphilus took me aside, away from the house,
and told me how that the young woman was still untouched by him; and how that before he had taken her home as his wife, he had hoped to be able to endure this marriage:
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But, Parmeno, as I can not resolve to live with her any longer, it is neither honorable in me, nor of advantage to the young woman herself, for her to be turned to ridicule, but rather I ought to return her to her relations just as I received her.
PHILOTIS
You tell me of a conscientious and virtuous disposition in Pamphilus.
PARMENO
For me to declare this, I consider to be inconvenient to me, but for her to be sent back to her father without mentioning any blame, would be insolent; but I am in hopes that she, when she is sensible that she can not live with me, will go at last of her own accord.
PHILOTIS
What did he do in the mean while? Used he to visit Bacchis?
PARMENO
Every day. But as usually is the case, after she saw that he belonged to another, she immediately became more ill-natured and more peevish.
PHILOTIS
I’ faith, that’s not to be wondered at.
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PARMENO
And this circumstance in especial contributed to estrange him from her; after he had fairly examined himself, and her, and the one that was at home, he formed a judgment, by comparison, upon the principles of them both. She, just as might be expected from a person of respectable and free birth,
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chaste and virtuous, patient under the slights and all the insults of her husband, and concealing his affronts. Upon this, his mind, partly overcome by compassion for his wife, partly constrained by the insolence of the other, was gradually estranged from Bacchis, and transferred its affections to the other,
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after having found a congenial disposition. In the mean time, there dies at ImbrosImbros: An island in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of Thrace. an old man, a relative of theirs. His property there devolved on them by law. Thither his father drove the love-sick Pamphilus, much against his will. He left his wife here with his mother, for the old man
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has retired into the country; he seldom comes into the city.
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PHILOTIS
What is there yet in this marriage to prevent its being lasting ?
PARMENO
You shall hear just now. At first, for several days, there really was a good understanding between them. In the mean time, however, in a strange way, she began to take a dislike to Sostrata;
