I have heard tales told of many maids, who while serving their lady mistresses as _Dariolettes_, or confidantes, have been fain to taste and try the same dainties. Such ladies moreover be often slaves in their own women’s hands, from dread of their discovering them and publishing abroad their amours, as I have noted above. ’Twas a lady in waiting who did one day tell me her opinion,—that ’twas a mighty piece of folly for maids to sacrifice their honour to their passions, and while some silly creatures were restrained therefrom by their scruples, for herself she would not deign to do it, the whole thing ending in mere shame and disgrace. On the other hand the trick of keeping one’s affair privy and secret made all right, and girls were mere fools and unfit for this wicked world which cannot help themselves and manage the thing quietly. A Spanish lady, thinking her daughter was afraid of the violence of the first wedding night, went to her and began to encourage her and persuade her ’twas naught at all and she would feel no pain, adding that herself would be right glad to be in her place the better to show her how to bear it. To this the girl replied, _Bezo las manos, señora madre, de tal merced, que bien la tomaré yo por mi_,—“Much thanks, my lady mother, for your kind offer, but I will manage very well by myself.” I have heard a merry tale of a girl of very high birth, who had contrived to afford herself much pleasure in her life so far, and whom her family now spake of marrying in Spain. One of her most special and privy friends said one day to her, by way of jest, how surprised he was to find that she, which had so dearly loved the _rising_ quarter, was now about to travel toward the setting or western, because Spain lies to the westward. To this the lady made answer, “Truly, I have heard mariners say, men that have travelled far, how that the navigation of the rising quarter is right pleasant and agreeable; and indeed myself have steered many a time thither by the compass I do alway carry on me. So I will take advantage of this same instrument, when I am in the land of the setting sun, yet to hie away me straight to the rising.” Judicious commentators will find it easy enough to interpret the allegory and make a shrewd guess at what I point to. I leave you to judge by these words whether the damsel had invariably limited her reading to the “hours” of Our Lady, and none other.