"
"You are indeed terrible," said Hircan, "but it had been well done
if your husband and the maid had both turned upon you and beaten you
soundly. There should not be so much ado for a kiss; and 'twould have
been better if his wife had said nothing about it, and had suffered him
to take his pastime, which might perchance have cured his complaint."
"Nay," said Parlamente, "she was afraid that the end of the pastime
would make him worse."
"She was not one of those," said Oisille, "against whom our Lord says,
'We have mourned to you and ye have not lamented, we have sung to you
and ye have not danced,' (2) for when her husband was ill, she wept, and
when he was merry, she laughed. In the same fashion every virtuous
woman ought to share the good and evil, the joy and the sadness of her
husband, and serve and obey him as the Church does Jesus Christ."
2 "They are like unto children sitting in the market-place,
and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto
you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye
have not wept."--_St. Luke_ vii. 32.--M.
"Then, ladies," said Parlamente, "our husbands should be to us what
Christ is to the Church.
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