“She knocked first at the Picard lady’s door. A maid opened, but her mistress refused to have one word to say to her visitor. She was an honest woman. “The procuress went next to see the lady of Poitiers and solicit her favours for the gallant knight. This dame answered her: “‘Prithee, go tell him who sent you that he is come to the wrong house, and that I am not the woman he takes me for.’ “She too is an honest woman; yet less honest than the first, in that she tried to appear more so. “The procuress then went to see the lady from Tours, made the same offer to her as to the other, and showed her the ring. “‘I’ faith,’ said the lady, ‘but the ring is right lovely.’ “‘’T is yours, an you will have it.’ “‘I will not have it at the price you set on it. My husband might catch me, and I should be doing him a grief he doth not deserve.’ “This lady of Touraine is a harlot, I trow, at bottom of her heart. “The procuress left her and went straight to the dame of Lyons, who cried: “‘Alack! my good friend, my husband is a jealous wight, and he would cut the nose off my face to hinder me winning any more rings at this pretty tilting.’ “This dame of Lyons, I tell you, is a worthless good-for-naught. “Last of all the procuress hurried to the Parisian’s. She was a hussy, and answered brazenly: “‘My husband goes Wednesday to his vineyards; tell the good sir who sent you I will come that day and see him.’ “Such, according to Brother Olivier, from Picardy to Paris, are the degrees from good to evil amongst women. What think you of the matter, Monsieur Coignard?” To which my good master made answer: “‘T is a shrewd matter to consider the acts and impulses of these petty creatures in their relations with Eternal Justice. I have no lights thereanent. But methinks the Lyons dame who feared having her nose cut off was a more good-for-nothing baggage than the Parisian who was afraid of nothing.” “I am far, very far, from allowing it,” replied Brother Jean Chavaray. “A woman who fears her husband may come to fear hell fire. Her Confessor, it may be, will bring her to do penance and give alms. For, after all, that is the end we must come at. But what can a poor Capuchin hope to get of a woman whom _nothing_ terrifies?” A GOOD LESSON WELL LEARNT [Illustration: 098] IN the days of King Louis XI there lived at Paris, in a matted chamber, a citizen dame called Violante, who was comely and well-liking in all her person. She had so bright a face that Master Jacques Tribouillard, doctor in law and a renowned cosmographer, who was often a visitor at her house, was used to tell her: