THE PARLIAMENT OF WOMEN. “209

Blep. “She’s not at home. "She’s gone some-
where on the sly.” : Brean Stet

Fr. “Why, my dear sir, that is exactly what has
happened to me. My wife has taken off my cloak ;
yes, and that is not the worst, but ay shoes, too.”

Blep. “My shoes are gone, too.”

Fr. “Perhaps a friend has invited her to break-
fast.”

Llep. “Very likely; she is not a bad sort, after all.”
' Fr. “Well, I must be off to the Assembly ; : that i is,
if I can find my cloak, for I haven’t got another.”

Very soon afterwards another friend came in,
‘Chremes by name. He had come, he- said, from
the Assembly. ‘“ What,” asked Blepyrus, ia it dis-
missed already ?”

Chremes.’ “Yes, and almost before it was light? ae

Blep. “You got your pay, I suppose?”

Chr. “TI wish that I had; as it was, I came- ‘too
late.”

Blep. “ How was that?”

Chr. ‘A whole crowd of people, more than I ever
saw together, came into the Pnyx; we thought, to
look at them, they were a set of indoor artisans,
they had such pale faces. However, they filled the
place, and I could not get my money, and a oo
many more were in the same plight. .

Blep. “Then I could not get it if I'went now?” ©

Chr. “No, indeed; nor would you have got it,
even if you a pone at second cock-crowing.”

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