3 “Recompense to no man evil for evil.”—­Rom. xii. 17. 
     “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing.”—­1
     Pet. iii. 9.—­Ed.

“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 whom will Longarine give her vote?”

     4 “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but
     they that are sick.”—­St. Mark ii. 17.  See also St.
     Luke v. 31.—­Ed.

“I give it,” she said, “to Saffredent.”

“Then I hope,” said Saffredent, “to prove to you that God does not favour lovers.  For although it has already been said, ladies, that vice is common to men and women alike, yet will a subtle artifice be more readily and adroitly devised by a woman than by a man Of this I am now about to give you an instance.”

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[Illustration:  089a.jpg The Lord of Grignaulx catching the Pretended Ghost]

[The Lord of Grignaulx catching the Pretended Ghost]

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TALE XXXIX.

     The Lord of Grignaulx freed his house from a ghost which
     had so tormented his wife that for the space of two years
     she had dwelt elsewhere.

A certain Lord of Grignaulx (1) who was gentleman of honour to the Queen of France, Anne, Duchess of Brittany, on returning to his house whence he had been absent during more than two years, found his wife at another estate, near by, and when he inquired the reason of this, she told him that a ghost was wont to haunt the house, and tormented them so much that none could dwell there. (2) Monsieur de Grig-naulx, who had no belief in such absurdities, replied that were it the devil himself he was not afraid of him, and so brought his wife home again.