Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/27

Rh Though they may be constrained and confined for a time, they will, if they get the chance, take up their freedom of action. It is equally futile to keep watch over the freedom of women. The worthy dame relates her own infatuation with a lover who treated her most cruelly. She ends by recommending Fair-Welcome to profit by the experience her tale affords. He asks her whether she cannot now admit the Lover without Jealousy being aware thereof. She replies that she can conceal him in such a manner that it would be easier to find an ant’s egg in a truss of straw than for Jealousy to discover him. She consents to admit the Lover, who promises her many a fair gift for her com­plaisance.