_Enter PARMENO._
PAR. (_to himself._) I’ve just come back to see what Chærea has been
doing here. If he has managed the affair with dexterity, ye Gods, by
our trust in you, how great and genuine applause will Parmeno obtain!
For not to mention that a passion, full of difficulty and expense,
with which he was smitten for a virgin, belonging to an extortionate
courtesan, I’ve found means of satisfying for him, without
molestation, without outlay, {and} without cost; then, this other
point-- that is really a thing that I consider my crowning merit, to
have found out the way by which a young man may be enabled to learn
the dispositions and manners of courtesans, so that by knowing them
betimes, he may detest them ever after. (_PYTHIAS enters from the
house unperceived._) For while they are out of doors, nothing seems
more cleanly, nothing more neat or more elegant; and when they dine
with a gallant, they pick daintily about:[103] to see the filth, the
dirtiness, the neediness of these women; how sluttish they are when at
home, and how greedy after victuals; in what a fashion they devour the
black bread with yesterday’s broth:-- to know all this, is salvation
to a young man.