"Silence, Semestre! your scolding is hurting my father."

These words increased the house-keeper's wrath instead of lessening it.
In a half-furious, half-whining tone, she exclaimed:

"So it comes to this! The child orders the old woman. But you shall
know, Lysander, that I won't allow myself to be mocked like a fool. That
impudent Mopsus is your freed-woman's child, and served this house for
high wages, but he shall leave it this very day, so surely as I hope to
live until the vintage. He or I! If you wish to keep him, I'll go to
Agrigentum and live with my daughter and grandchildren, who send to me by
every messenger. If this insolent fellow is more to you than I am, I'll
leave this place of ingratitude. In Agrigentum--"

"It is beautiful in Agrigentum !" interrupted the conjurer, pointing
with his finger impressively in the direction of this famous city.

"It is delightful there," cried the old woman, "so long as one doesn't
meet pygmies like you in the streets."

The house-keeper was struggling for breath, and her master took advantage
of the pause to murmur beseechingly, like a child who is to be deprived
of something it loves:

"Mopsus must go--merry Mopsus? Nobody knows how to lift and support me
so well."

These words softened Semestre's wrath, and, lowering her voice, she
replied: