And by the Lord, I’m telling how I’m going to do it.

Leon.

  Ne nega.

      Don’t refuse.

Lib.

  Quin promitto, inquam, hostire contra ut merueris.

      Oh, I agree, I agree—­to pay you back all you earn.

Leon.

  Ego abeo, tu iam, scio, patiere. sed quis hic est? is est,
  ille est ipsus. iam ego recurro huc. tu hunc interea his tene.
  volo seni narrare.

(turning to go) I’m off:  you’ll put up with it now, I know you will. (looking down street) Hullo!  Who’s this!  It’s he, the very man!  I’ll hurry back here soon!  You keep him here while I’m gone.  I must tell the old man. (stops to look again)

Lib.

  Quin tuom officium facis ergo ac fugis? 380

      (sneeringly) Why don’t you play your part then, and—­run
      away? [EXIT Leonida.

II. 3.

    Scene 3.

    ENTER Trader, WITH SERVANT.

Merc.
    Trader

  Ut demonstratae sunt mihi, hasce aedis esse oportet,
  Demaenetus ubi dicitur habitare. i, puere, pulta
  atque atriensem Sauream, si est intus, evocato huc.

(looking at house of Demaenetus) According to directions, this must be the house where they say Demaenetus lives. (to servant) Go knock, my lad, and if steward Saurea is in there, call him out. (servant goes toward house)

Lib.

  Quis nostras sic frangit fores? ohe, inquam, si quid audis.

      (stepping forward) Who’s that battering our door so? 
      Whoa there, I say—­if you’re not deaf!

Merc.
    Trader

  Nemo etiam tetigit. sanun es?

      No one has touched it yet.  Are you in your senses?

Lib.

  At censebam attigisse
  propterea, huc quia habebas iter. nolo ego fores conservas
  meas a te verberarier. sane ego sum amicus nostris.

Well, I was thinking you had touched it, seeing you were making this way.  I don’t want you to beat that door—­it’s a fellow servant of mine.  I tell you what, I love my fellow servants.

Merc.
    Trader

  Pol haud periclum est, cardines ne foribus effringantur,
  si istoc exemplo omnibus qui quaerunt respondebis.

      Gad!  No danger of the door being battered off its hinges,
      if you answer all callers in that style.

Lib.

  Ita haec morata est ianua:  extemplo ianitorem 390
  clamat, procul si quem videt ire ad se calcitronem.
  sed quid venis? quid quaeritas?

Here’s the way this door has been trained:  once it sights some bully in the distance coming towards it, it bawls for the porter directly.  But what’s your business?  What are you after?

Merc.
    Trader