Corn. Ah! You don’t look your age. She’s trying the idiotic dodge again. (stooping) Ahem! When did you—(gets twinge again with bending, puts away chair and fetches low occasional chair from back of stage, sits close to her and stoops) When did you see your sister last?
Nio. (sits up) At the Feast of Demeter, on the Temple steps.
Corn. Temple steps! Taking the Battersea boat perhaps! How did you leave her?
Nio. In sorrow. She had been early plighted to a young hoplite of Ithaca, named Aulakes.
Corn. Hoplite! A dancing master I suppose. It’s the first I’ve heard of this; she may betray more of Ethel’s secrets! (aloud) And what—(trying to get lower, and sees stool, Niobe sitting up, has left room for him, he steps over stool and sits) What became of the young fellow?
Nio. He fought throughout the war and fell in the last battle.
Corn. (aside—surprised) Ethel can’t be the Spring chicken I believed her. (aloud) You were younger than your sister?
Nio. Ah yes!
Corn. Ah yes—I can see a resemblance, but a difference; she might be called handsome—you’re pretty.