"I think," said Hircan, "she must have been in love with some Grey
Friar, who had laid upon her the penance of having her husband well
treated in the country, so that, meantime, she might be free to
entertain herself well in the town."

"Therein," said Oisille, "you clearly show the wickedness of your own
heart, judging ill of a good deed. I rather believe her to have been so
subdued by the love of God that she cared for naught save the salvation
of her husband's soul."

"It seems to me," said Simontault, "that he had more reason to return
to his wife when he was so cold at the farm than afterwards when he was
treated so well."

"From what I can see," said Saffredent, "you are not of the same opinion
as the rich man of Paris who, when he lay with his wife, could not put
off his gear without being chilled, but who never felt the worse when
he went without cap or shoes, in the depth of winter, to see his
servant-maid in the cellar. Yet his wife was very beautiful and the maid
very ugly."

"Have you not heard," said Geburon, "that God always aids lunatics,
lovers and sots? Perhaps he was all three in one."

"Do you thence conclude," said Pariamente, "that God recks not of the
wise, the chaste and the temperate? Help is not needed by those who can
help themselves. He who said that He had come for the sick and not for
the whole, (4) came by the law of His mercy to succour our infirmities,
thereby annulling the decrees of His rigorous justice; and he that deems
himself wise is a fool in the sight of God. But, to end the sermon, to