“Expired he then, good Heaven! for want of food?”-- “No! crusts and water in a corner stood;-- To have this plenty, and to wait so long, And to be right too late, is doubly wrong: 480 Then, every day to see him totter by, And to forbear--Oh! what a heart had I!”-- “Blame me not, child; I tremble at the news.”-- “’Tis my own heart,” said Susan, “I accuse: To have this money in my purse--to know What grief was his, and what to grief we owe; To see him often, always to conceive How he must pine and languish, groan and grieve; And every day in ease and peace to dine And rest in comfort!--what a heart is mine!”-- 490 TALE XVIII. _THE WAGER._ ’Tis thought your deer doth hold you at a bay. _Taming [of] the Shrew_, Act V. Scene 2. I choose her for myself: If she and I are pleased, what’s that to you? ----, Act II. Scene 1. Let’s send each one to his wife, And he whose wife is most obedient [. . . . . .] Shall win the wager. ----, Act V. Scene 2. Now by the world it is a lusty wench, I love her ten times more than e’er I did. ----, Act II. Scene 1. TALE XVIII. _THE WAGER._ Counter and Clubb were men in trade, whose pains, Credit, and prudence, brought them constant gains; Partners and punctual, every friend agreed Counter and Clubb were men who must succeed. When they had fix’d some little time in life, Each thought of taking to himself a wife; As men in trade alike, as men in love They seem’d with no according views to move; As certain ores in outward view the same, They show’d their difference when the magnet came. 10 Counter was vain; with spirit strong and high, ’Twas not in him like suppliant swain to sigh: “His wife might o’er his men and maids preside, And in her province be a judge and guide; But what he thought, or did, or wish’d to do, She must not know, or censure if she knew; At home, abroad, by day, by night, if he On aught determined, so it was to be. How is a man,” he ask’d, “for business fit, Who to a female can his will submit? 20 Absent awhile, let no inquiring eye Or plainer speech presume to question why, But all be silent; and, when seen again, Let all be cheerful--shall a wife complain? Friends I invite, and who shall dare t’ object, Or look on them with coolness or neglect? No! I must ever of my house be head, And, thus obey’d, I condescend to wed.” Clubb heard the speech--“My friend is nice,” said he; “A wife with less respect will do for me. 30 How is he certain such a prize to gain? } What he approves, a lass may learn to feign, }