304. MENANDER.

De. “Well, if you are not enough to drive a man
mad! It is no crime forsooth for a young man to
do such things!”

Mi. “Listen to me. Don’t go on hammering in
the same thing over and over again. You allowed
me to adopt your son. He is nowmyown. If he
goes wrong, it is my lookout. If he is extravagant,
I find the money —so long as I choose. He has
broken. in a door; it shall be repaired. He has torn
a man’s coat; it shall be mended. Thank heaven!
I have the wherewithal; and at present I am con-
tent to supply it. Really, when you talk in this way,
you seem to be repenting of having made him over
tome’: .

De. “Well, well; let him be as extravagant as he
pleases; it does not matter tome. But if I ever say
another word —”

Micio, to tell the truth, was somewhat uneasy at
this fresh outbreak on the part of his adopted son.
The young man had promised to reform, and had
even expressed his intention of looking out for a wife
and settling down, and this violent proceeding of his
was a great disappointment. Nor, indeed, was it
long before the severe Demea also began to feel un-
comfortable. A rumour reached him that the model
young man Ctesipho had taken part with A¢schinus
in his scandalous proceedings. He was thinking
where he was likely to find his son when he spied
Micio’s favourite slave, Syrus. “Ah!” he said, “Tl