THE GIRL OF ANDROS. 319

Pam, “That is.more than I am.”

Char. “1 beseech you not to marry her.”

Pam. “T will do my best.”

Char. “Tf you can’t help yourself, or if, after all,
you really wish to marry her, at least give me a few
days to get out of the way, so that I may not see it.”

Pam. “My good fellow, I don’t want to make any
merit of it, but it is the simple truth that I hate the
idea of the marriage quite as much as you do. Do
all you can to get the girl, and I will help you. But
here comes my clever Davus; he is the man to
advise us.”

Char. “Ishe? This fellow Byrrhia is no use at
all.”

Davus had good news to tell. The marriage was
all an invention. “I suspected something of the
kind,” he said, “and went to Chremes’s house. There
wasn’t a sign of anything festive. No one was
going in or out. There were no signs of prepara-
tion. Then I met his man as he was going away.
He had a few vegetables and half a dozen anchovies
for the old man’s supper. That did not look like a
wedding.”

Char. “Excellent! excellent!”

Da. “But, my good sir, it does not follow that
you will get the young lady because she is not to be
married to Pamphilus here to-day. Bestir yourself,
or you will lose her as sure as fate.”

Charinus promptly departed to take counsel with