m at
present, but as doubtless I soon shall be. I promise you to govern my
behaviour by this salutary thought."

Brother Jean Turelure was far from expecting such pious words. He
expressed some satisfaction.

"So, madame," he murmured, "you see yourself the need of altering your
ways. You promise me henceforth to govern your behaviour by the thought
this fleshless skull hath brought home to you. Will you not make the
same promise to God as you have to me?"

She asked if indeed she must, and he assured her it behoved her so to
do.

"Well, I will give this promise then," she declared.

"Madame, this is very well. There is no going back on your word now."

"I shall not go back on it, never fear."

Having won this binding promise, Brother Jean Turelure left the place,
radiant with satisfaction. And as he went from the house, he cried out
loud in the street:

"Here is a good work done! By Our Lord God's good help, I have turned
and set in the way toward the gate of Paradise a lady, who, albeit not
sinning precisely in the way of fornication spoken of by the Prophet,
yet was wont to employ for men's temptation the clay whereof the Creator
had kneaded her that she might serve and adore him withal. She will
forsake these naughty habits to adopt a better life. I have throughly
changed her. Praise be to God!"

Hardly had the good Brother gone down the stairs when Messire Philippe
de Coetquis ran up them and scratched at Madame Violante's door. She
welcomed him with a beaming smile, and led him into a closet, furnished
with carpets and cushions galore, wherein he had never been admitted
before. From this he augured well. He offered her sweetmeats he had in a
box.

"Here be sugar-plums to suck, madame; they are sweet and sugared, but
not so sweet as your lips."

To which the lady retorted he was a vain, silly fop to make boast of a
fruit he had never tasted.

He answered her meetly, kissing her forthwith on the mouth.

She manifested scarce any annoyance and said only she was an honest
woman and a true wife. He congratulated her and advised her not to lock
up this jewel of hers in such close keeping that no man could enjoy it.
"For, of a surety," he swore, "you will be robbed of it, and that right
soon."

"Try then," said she, cuffing him daintily over the ears with her pretty
pink palms.

But he was master by this time to take whatsoever he wished of her. She
kept protesting with little cries:

"I won't have