§9.19.1tamen a malitia non discedis; tenuiculo apparatu significas Balbum fuisse contentum.
Yet you do not depart from your mischievousness; you intimate that Balbus was content with a very meager preparation.
hoc videris dicere, cum reges tam sint continentes, multo magis consularis esse oportere.
You seem to say this: since "kings" are so continent, it behaves a consular man to be much more so.
nescis me ab illo omnia expiscatum; recta enim a porta domum meam venisse neque hoc admiror, quod non suam potius, sed illud, quod non ad suam.
You do not know that I fished out everything from him; for he came straight from the gate to my house. And I do not wonder at this, that he did not go to his own home instead, but at that, namely, that he did not go to his own.
ego autem tribus primis verbis: ' quid noster Paetus?' at ille adiurans nusquam se umquam libentius.
And I, in my first three words, asked: 'How is our Paetus?' But he, swearing on oath, said that he had nowhere ever been more pleasantly entertained.
§9.19.2hoc si verbis adsecutus es, auris ad te adferam non minus elegantis; sin autem obsonio, peto a te ne pluris esse balbos quam disertos putes.
If you achieved this with words, I will bring to you ears no less elegant; but if with food, I beg you not to think that stammerers (balbi) are of more value than the eloquent (diserti).
me cotidie aliud ex alio impedit; sed si me expediero ut in ista loca venire possim, non committam ut te sero a me certiorem factum putes.
Everyday one thing after another hinders me; but if I extricate myself so that I can come to those parts of yours, I will not manage things so that you think you were informed by me too late.