Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/113

Rh "Who is that hussy standing at yon window?" And Menechella in a great rage replied, "So so, if matters stand thus, I know where I am: yesterday you teased me about that ugly face, and I fear that the tongue goes in truth to the aching tooth. You ought however to pay me some respect, for at all events I am the daughter of a king, and every clod of dirt has its use; but if I find you out, take care lest I act like a mad person, and make the chips fly through the air."

Meo, who had eaten bread from more than one oven, soothed her with soft words, and said and swore that he would not exchange his wife for the most beautiful creature in the world, and that she was the very core of his heart; until Menechella, reconciled at length by these words, went into a closet, to have the waiting-maids pass the glass over her face, braid her hair, dye her eyebrows, and in short adorn her, so that she might appear still more beautiful to her supposed husband.

In the meanwhile Meo, who began to suspect from what had fallen from Menechella that Cienzo was staying at the house of that maiden, took the little dog, and leaving the palace went to her house; and hardly had he entered the door when she exclaimed, "Hairs of mine, bind this man!" But Meo lost no time, and