and they proposed a wager of
twenty crowns, but Petruchio merrily said, he would lay as much as that
upon his hawk or hound, but twenty times as much upon his wife. Lucentio
and Hortensio raised the wager to a hundred crowns, and Lucentio first
sent his servant to desire Bianca would come to him. But the servant
returned, and said, "Sir, my mistress sends you word she is busy and
cannot come."--"How," said Petruchio, "does she say she is busy and
cannot come? Is that an answer for a wife?" Then they laughed at him,
and said, it would be well if Katharine did not send him a worse answer.
And now it was Hortensio's turn to send for his wife; and he said to his
servant, "Go, and entreat my wife to come to me." "Oh ho! entreat her!"
said Petruchio. "Nay, then, she needs must come."--"I am afraid, sir,"
said Hortensio, "your wife will not be entreated." But presently this
civil husband looked a little blank, when the servant returned without
his mistress; and he said to him, "How now! Where is my wife?"--"Sir,"
said the servant, "my mistress says, you have some goodly jest in hand,
and therefore she will not come. She bids you come to her."--"Worse and
worse!" said Petruchio; and then he sent his servant, saying, "Sirrah,
go to your mistress, and tell her I command her to come to me." The
company had scarcely time to think she would not obey this summons, when
Baptista, all in amaze, exclaimed, "Now, by my _holidame_, here comes
Katharine!" and she entered, saying meekly to Petruchio, "What is your
will, sir, that you send for me?"--"Where is your sister and Hortensio's
wife?" said he. Katharine replied, "They sit conferring by the parlour
fire."--"Go, fetch them hither!" said Petruchio. Away went Katharine
without reply to perform her husband's command. "Here is a wonder," said
Lucentio, "if you talk of a wonder."--"And so it is," said Hortensio; "I
marvel what it bodes."--"Marry, peace it bodes," said Petruchio, "and
love, and quiet life, and right supremacy; and, to be short, everything
that is sweet and happy." Katharine's father, overjoyed to see this
reformation in his daughter, said, "Now, fair befall thee, son
Petruchio! you have won the wager, and I will add another twenty
thousand crowns to her dowry, as if she were another daughter, for she
is changed as if she had never been."--"Nay," said Petruchio, "I will
win the wager better yet, and show more signs of her new-built virtue
and obedience." Katharine now enterin