_M._ Say, is the Lady Principal at home?

_Ch._ Thou speak'st, as one for information come.

_M._ I ask the question, for I wish to know.

_Ch._ By shrewd conjecture one might guess 'twas so.

_M._ Go, tell your Lady I would speak with her.

_Ch._ About what thing? what quest dost thou prefer?

_M._ I bear a tale I hardly dare to tell.

_Ch._ Why vex her ears, when ours will do as well?

_M._ Hear then the facts which with self-seeing eyes
I witnessed, not receiving from another.
For when I came within those doors august
Where sat the Boule, doubting if to grant
The boon of honour which the women ask,
Or not: and like some Thracian Hellespont
Tides of opinion flowed in different ways,
Until obeying some divine decree
(This is a Nominative Absolute)
The hollow-bellied circle of a hat
Received their votes (and now, but not till now,
Observe my true apodosis begin)--
Arithmetic, supreme of sciences,