holic and a true penitent before his
Creator. The first thing he did when he came to himself was to call out
to God to forgive him for his sin, then he fell into earnest prayer and
continued so for half-an-hour upon his knees. Then he got up and dressed
but continued very melancholy for the whole of the morning. Being in
this mood you may imagine it hurt him to see his wife running about
naked, but he reflected it would be a bad reformation that began with
breaking faith. He had made a bargain and he would stick to it, and so
he let her be, though sorely against his will.

For the same reason, that is because he would stick to his side of the
bargain, he did not require her to sit up at table, but gave her her
breakfast on a dish in the corner, where to tell the truth she on her
side ate it all up with great daintiness and propriety. Nor she did make
any attempt to go out of doors that morning, but lay curled up in an
armchair before the fire dozing. After lunch he took her out, and she
never so much as offered to go near the ducks, but running before him
led him on to take her a longer walk. This he consented to do very much
to her joy and delight. He took her through the fields by the most
unfrequented ways, being much alarmed lest they should be seen by
anyone. But by good luck they walked above four miles across country and
saw nobody. All the way his wife kept running on ahead of him, and then
back to him to lick his hand and so on, and appeared delighted at taking
exercise. And though they startled two or three rabbits and a hare in
the course of their walk she never attempted to go after them, only
giving them a look and then looking back to him, laughing at him as it
were for his warning cry of "Puss! come in, no nonsense now!"

Just when they got home and were going into the porch they came face to
face with an old woman. Mr. Tebrick stopped short in consternation and
looked about for his vixen, but she had run forward without any shyness
to greet her. Then he recognised the intruder, it was his wife's old
nurse.

"What are you doing here, Mrs. Cork?" he asked her.

Mrs. Cork answered him in these words:

"Poor thing. Poor Miss Silvia! It is a shame to let her run about like a
dog. It is a shame, and your own wife too. But whatever she looks like,
you should trust her the same as ever. If you do she'll do her best to
be a good wife to you, if you don't I shouldn't wonder if she did turn
into a proper fox.