arried such an ugly wife. Amadour, who well
understood by these words that she had a mind to supply his need, made
her the fairest speeches he could devise, seeking to conceal the truth
by persuading her of a falsehood. But she, being subtle and experienced
in love, was not to be put off with mere words; and feeling sure that
his heart was not to be satisfied with such love as she could give him,
she suspected he wished to make her serve as a cloak, and so kept close
watch upon his eyes. These, however, knew so well how to dissemble, that
she had nothing to guide her but the barest suspicion.

Nevertheless, her observation sorely troubled Amadour; for Florida, who
was ignorant of all these wiles, often spoke to him before Paulina in
such a familiar fashion that he had to make wondrous efforts to compel
his eyes to belie his heart. To avoid unpleasant consequences, he one
day, while leaning against a window, spoke thus to Florida--

"I pray you, sweetheart, counsel me whether it is better for a man to
speak or die?"

Florida forthwith replied--

"I shall always counsel my friends to speak and not to die. There
are few words that cannot be mended, but life once lost can never be
regained."

"Will you promise me, then," said Amadour, "that you will not be
displeased by what I wish to tell you, nor yet alarmed at it, until you
have heard me to the end?"

"Say what you will," she replied; "if you alarm me, none can reassure
me."

"For two reasons," he then began, "I have hitherto been unwilling to
tell you of the great affection that I feel for you. First, I wished to
prove it to you by long service, and secondly, I feared that you might
deem it presumption in me, who am but a simple gentleman, to address
myself to one upon whom it is not fitting that I should look. And
even though I were of royal station like your own, your heart, in its
loyalty, would suffer none save the son of the Infante of Fortune,
who has won it, to speak to you of love. But just as in a great war
necessity compels men to devastate their own possessions and to destroy
their corn in the blade, that the enemy may derive no profit therefrom,
so do I risk anticipating the fruit which I had hoped to gather in
season, lest your enemies and mine profit by it to your detriment.
Know, then, that from your earliest youth I have devoted myself to your
service and have ever striven to win your favour. For this purpose alone
I married her whom I thought y