me and do at my pleasure.'

"The procuress knew, by having seen them at Mass, five ladies of an
excellent beauty,--natives the first of Picardy, the second of Poitou,
the third of Touraine, another from the good city of Lyons, and the last
a Parisian, all dwelling in the Cite or its near neighbourhood.

"She knocked first at the Picard lady's door. A maid opened, but her
mistress refused to have one word to say to her visitor. She was an
honest woman.

"The procuress went next to see the lady of Poitiers and solicit her
favours for the gallant knight. This dame answered her:

"'Prithee, go tell him who sent you that he is come to the wrong house,
and that I am not the woman he takes me for.'

"She too is an honest woman; yet less honest than the first, in that she
tried to appear more so.

"The procuress then went to see the lady from Tours, made the same offer
to her as to the other, and showed her the ring.

"'I' faith,' said the lady, 'but the ring is right lovely.'

"''T is yours, an you will have it.'

"'I will not have it at the price you set on it. My husband might catch
me, and I should be doing him a grief he doth not deserve.'

"This lady of Touraine is a harlot, I trow, at bottom of her heart.

"The procuress left her and went straight to the dame of Lyons, who
cried:

"'Alack! my good friend, my husband is a jealous wight, and he would cut
the nose off my face to hinder me winning any more rings at this pretty
tilting.'

"This dame of Lyons, I tell you, is a worthless good-for-naught.

"Last of all the procuress hurried to the Parisian's. She was a hussy,
and answered brazenly:

"'My husband goes Wednesday to his vineyards; tell the good sir who sent
you I will come that day and see him.'

"Such, according to Brother Olivier, from Picardy to Paris, are the
degrees from good to evil amongst women. What think you of the matter,
Monsieur Coignard?"

To which my good master made answer:

"'T is a shrewd matter to consider the acts and impulses of these petty
creatures in their relations with Eternal Justice. I have no lights
thereanent. But methinks the Lyons dame who feared having her nose cut
off was a more good-for-nothing baggage than the Parisian who was afraid
of nothing."

"I am far, very far, from allowing it," replied Brother Jean Chavaray.
"A woman who fears her husband may come to fear hell fire. Her
Confessor, it may be, will bring her to do penance and give alms. For,
after