GITON WAS STANDING there, helpless with laughter. Seeing this, quartilla asked with great interest whose boy he was. When I told her that he was my 'brother', she said: 'Then why hasn't he kissed me?' She called him to her and put her lips to his. Then, she slipped her hand into his clothes and felt his little untried seed-pod. 'This,' she said, 'will serve as starters for our orgies tomorrow; for the moment, after that little stud, I'm not bothering with our daily rations.'
As she said this, Psyche came in, smiling, and whispered something in her ear. 'Yes, just so,' said Quartilla, 'I'm glad you reminded me. It's such a good opportunity, why shouldn't our Pannychis be deflowered?' She was produced at once - quite a pretty girl, who seemed to be no more than seven years old. It was she who had come into our chamber with Quartilla, earlier. Everyone applauded and demanded a wedding. I was aghast and objected that Giton was a very modest boy who wasn't up to this wantonness, nor was the girl of an age to be able to assume the role of a submissive woman. 'Oh yes?' said Quartilla. 'Is she younger than I was when I had my first man? May Juno strike me down, if I can remember when I was a virgin. When I was a kid I mucked around with my peers, and after, in the succeeding years, I took up with older boys until I arrived at my present age. I think this must be the origin of the proverb 'Who can bear the calf is able to take on the bull.'
In case my boy should suffer greater injury in private, I got up to help with his wedding. Already, Psyche had put a flame-coloured bridal veil over the girl's head and the male prostitute was leading the way. The drunken women were clapping in a long line and had decked out the bridal chamber, draping it suggestively. Then Quartilla, aroused by the joke, got up, seized Giton and dragged him into the room.
Without doubt, the boy made no attempt to resist, and the girl showed no fear or sorrow at the word 'marriage'. And so, as soon as they were shut in and lying down, we sat outside the door of the bridal chamber and Quartilla was the first to put a watchful eye to a chink she'd widened and spy on the children's games with lustful eagerness. She drew me to the same sight with a clammy hand, and since our faces were pressed together while we watched, she would move her lips to mine in passing and torment me with furtive kisses.
XW, 24. Transl. F.P.