Indeed, the disparity was at times so great between these two Gilbertes that you asked yourself, though without finding an answer, what on earth you could have said or done to her, last time, to find her now so different. When she herself had arranged to meet you somewhere, not only did she fail to appear, and offer no excuse afterwards, but, whatever the influence might have been that had made her change her mind, she showed herself in so different a character when you did meet her that you might well have supposed that, taken in by a likeness such as forms the plot of the

Menaechmi , you were now talking to someone not the person who had so politely expressed her desire to see you, had she not shown signs of an ill-humour which revealed that she felt herself to be in the wrong, and wished to avoid the necessity of an explanation.

“Now then, run along and get ready; you’re keeping us waiting,” her mother reminded her.