as much apart from him as possible;
and from such estrangement there springs up contempt for the faithless
one; and this contempt gradually lessens love, for a thing is loved in
proportion as it is esteemed."

"But there is a danger," said Ennasuite, "that the impatient wife may
meet with a passionate husband who, instead of patience, will bring her
pain."

"And what more," said Parlamente, "could a husband do than was done by
the husband in the story?"

"What more?" said Ennasuite. "Why, beat his wife soundly, and make her
lie in the smaller bed, and his sweetheart in the larger." (2)

2 At this period, and for some time afterwards, there were
usually two beds in the master's room, a large one for
himself and his wife, and a small one in which slept a
trusty servant, male or female. These little beds are shown
in some of the designs engraved by Abraham Bosse in the
seventeenth century.--L.

"It is my belief," said Parlamente, "that a true woman would be less
grieved by being beaten in anger than by being contemned for one of less
worth than herself. After enduring the severance of love, nothing that
her husband could do would be able to cause her any further pain. And in
this wise the story says that the trouble she took to regain him was for
the sake of her children--which I can well believe."

"And do you think that it showed great patience on her part," said
Nomerfide, "to kindle a fire beneath the bed on which her husband was
sleeping."

"Yes," said Longarine; "for when she saw the smoke she waked him, and
herein, perhaps, was she most to blame; for the ashes of such a husband
as hers would to my thinking have been good for the making of lye."

"You are cruel, Longarine," said Oisille, "but those are not the terms
on which you lived with your own husband."

"No," said Longarine, "for, God be thanked, he never gave me cause. I
have reason to regret him all my life long, not to complain of him."

"But if he had behaved in such a manner towards you," said Nomerfide,
"what would you have done?"

"I loved him so dearly," said Longarine, "that I believe I should have
killed him, and myself as well. To die after taking such a vengeance
would have been sweeter to me than to live faithfully with the
faithless."

"So far as I can see," said Hircan, "you do not love your husbands
except for your own sakes. If they are what you want them to be, you
are very fond of them; but if t