e had from seeing him.'

Accordingly, they softly opened the chamber and stole down to the
door, where, without opening it anydele, the lady called to the
scholar in a low voice by a little hole that was there. Rinieri
hearing himself called, praised God, taking it oversoon for granted
that he was to be presently admitted, and coming up to the door, said,
'Here am I, madam; open for God's sake, for I die of cold.' 'O ay,'
replied the lady, 'I know thou art a chilly one; is then the cold so
exceeding great, because, forsooth, there is a little snow about? I
wot the nights are much colder in Paris. I cannot open to thee yet,
for that accursed brother of mine, who came to sup with me to-night,
is not yet gone; but he will soon begone and I will come incontinent
to open to thee. I have but now very hardly stolen away from him, that
I might come to exhort thee not to wax weary of waiting.' 'Alack,
madam,' cried the scholar, 'I pray you for God's sake open to me, so I
may abide within under cover, for that this little while past there is
come on the thickest snow in the world and it yet snoweth, and I will
wait for you as long as it shall please you.' 'Woe's me, sweet my
treasure,' replied the lady, 'that cannot I; for this door maketh so
great a noise, whenas it is opened, that it would lightly be heard of
my brother, if I should open to thee; but I will go bid him begone, so
I may after come back and open to thee.' 'Then go quickly,' rejoined
he; 'and I prithee let make a good fire, so I may warm me as soon as I
come in, for that I am grown so cold I can scarce feel myself.' Quoth
the lady, 'That should not be possible, an that be true which thou
hast many a time written me, to wit, that thou burnest for the love of
me. Now, I must go, wait and be of good heart.' Then, with her lover,
who had heard all this with the utmost pleasure, she went back to bed,
and that night they slept little, nay, they spent it well nigh all in
dalliance and delight and in making mock of Rinieri.

Meanwhile, the unhappy scholar (now well nigh grown a stork, so sore
did his teeth chatter,) perceiving at last that he was befooled,
essayed again and again to open the door and sought an he might not
avail to issue thence by another way; but, finding no means
thereunto, he fell a-ranging to and fro like a lion, cursing the
foulness of the weather and the lady's malignity and the length of the
night, together with his own credulity; wherefore, being