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"Say you so," quoth Habinas, "nor am I afraid to make two days of one"; and therewith got up barefoot and follow'd Trimalchio. I on the other hand turning to Ascyltos, asked him what he thought of it, for "if I but see the bath I shall swoon away." "Let's lagg behind then," said he, "and whilst they are getting in, we'll slip off in the crowd."
While I was denying I knew the house, I observ'd a company of beaux reading the bills o'er the cells, on which was inscrib'd the name of the whore and her price; and others of the same function naked, scuttling it here and there, as if they would not, yet would be seen: When too late I found my self in a bawdy-house, cursing the jade that had trapan'd me thither, I cover'd my head and was just making off through the midst of them, when in the very entry Ascyltos met me, but as tir'd as my self, and in a manner dead; you'd have sworn the same old woman brought him.
After cursing the wiles of the little old hag, I covered my head and commenced to run through the middle of the night-house to the exit opposite, when, lo and behold! whom should I meet on the very threshold but Ascyltos himself, as tired as I was, and almost dead; you would have thought that he had been brought by the self-same little old hag!
But Ascyltos threw off all restraint and ridiculed everything; throwing up his hands, he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks. At last, one of Trimalchio's fellow-freedmen, the one who had the place next to me, flew into a rage, "What's the joke, sheep's-head," he bawled, "Don't our host's swell entertainment suit you? You're richer than he is, I suppose, and used to dining better!
Ascyltos perceiving the chat was at an end, "Am not I worthy," said he, "to get a sup?" And Psyche fearing my laughter might discover her, clapped her hands, and told him, "Young-man I made you an offer of it, but your friend here has drunk it all out." "Is it so," quoth Quartilla, smiling very agreeably, "and has Ercolpius gugg'd it all down?"
When I cry'd out, he drew his sword, and 'if thou art a Lucreece, said he, 'thou hast met a Tarquin." I heard him, and shaking my fist at Ascyltos; "What saist thou," said I, "thou catamite, whose very breath is tainted?"
I did not like to observing an entry; and was afraid I had entertain'd another Ascyltos.
Giton, who had been standing at my feet, and who had for some time been holding in his laughter, burst into an uproarious guffaw, at this last figure of speech, and when Ascyltos' adversary heard it, he turned his abuse upon the boy. "What's so funny, you curly-headed onion," he bellowed, "are the Saturnalia here, I'd like to know? Is it December now? "When did you pay your twentieth?
Then Ascyltos having got heart again, began to amplifie the delight he took in having pillag'd Lycurgus; of whose miserableness he, not without cause, complain'd; for he neither paid him for his nights service, nor kept a table that had either meat, or drink on't, being such a sordid pinch-peny; that, notwithstanding his infinite wealth, he deny'd himself the common necessaries of life.
While, therefore, the young men were making fun of the sentiments of this last speaker, and criticizing the arrangement of the whole speech, I seized the opportunity and went after Ascyltos, on the run; but, as I neither held strictly to the road, nor knew where the inn was located, wherever I went, I kept coming back to the same place, until, worn out with running, and long since dripping with sweat, I approached a certain little old woman who sold country vegetables.
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