Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/197

Rh weakness of your judgment, and your want of reason and reflection. Oh, you man without sense, do you think that if I had in reality a lover, and had admitted him into this room I should have told you that he was here and where he was hidden? This is certainly not likely. I had no other thought than to offer you a collation on your return, and wanted only to have a joke with you in doing as I did. If I had a lover I should certainly not have made you my confidant."

The husband left the key in the lock of the closet without having turned it and returned to the table, and said, 'True! I rose; but I had not the slightest doubt about the sincerity of your words." Then they ate and drank together, and then made love.

The man in the closet had to stop there until the husband went out. Then the lady went to set him free, and found him quite undone and in a bad state. When he came out after having escaped an imminent peril, she said to him, "Well, you wiseacre, who know so well the stratagems of women, of all those you know is there one to equal this?" He made answer, "I am now convinced that your stratagems are countless."

Appreciate after this the deceits of womentwomen, [sic] and what they are capable of.

It is related that a woman who was married to a violent and brutal man, having her lover with her on the unexpected arrival of her husband, who was returning from a journey, had only just time to hide him under the bed. She was compelled to let him remain in this dangerous