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 they fall into the slightest error towards
you, they lose on a Saturday the toil of an entire week. Thus you are
minded to rule, and I for my part will consent to it provided, however,
that all other husbands agree."

"It is reasonable," said Parlamente, "that man should rule us as our
head, but not that he should forsake us or treat us ill."