they knocked loudly they received no reply, for the bride was in
a condition in which silence is excusable, and the bridegroom had not
much to chatter about.

"What is the matter?" cried the guests. "Why do you not open the door?
If you do not make haste we will break it open; the caudle we have
brought you will be quite cold;" and they began to knock louder than
ever.

But the bridegroom would not have uttered a word for a hundred francs;
at which those outside did not know what to think, for he was not
ordinarily a silent man. At last he rose, and put on a dressing-gown he
had, and let in his friends, who soon asked him whether the caudle had
been earned, and what sort of a time he had had? Then one of them
laid the table-cloth, and spread the banquet, for they had everything
prepared, and spared nothing in such cases. They all sat round to eat,
and the bridegroom took his seat in a high-backed chair placed near his
bed, looking very stupid and pitiful as you may imagine. And whatever
the others said, he did not answer a word, but sat there like a statue
or a carved idol.

"What is the matter?" cried one. "You take no notice of the excellent
repast that our host has provided. You have not said a single word yet."

"Marry!" said another, "he has no jokes ready."

"By my soul!" said another, "marriage has wondrous properties. He has
but been married an hour and he has lost his tongue. If he goes on at
that rate there will soon be nothing left of him."

To tell the truth, he had formerly been known as a merry fellow, fond of
a joke, and never uttered a word but a jest; but now he was utterly cast
down.

The gentlemen drank to the bride and bridegroom, but devil a drop would
either of them quaff in return; the one was in a violent rage, and the
other was far from being at ease.

"I am not experienced in these affairs," said a gentleman, "but it seems
we must feast by ourselves. I never saw a man with such a grim-looking
face, and so soon sobered by a woman. You might hear a pin drop in his
company. Marry! his loud jests are small enough now!"

"I drink to the bridegroom," said another, but the bridegroom neither
drank, eat, laughed, or spoke. Nevertheless, after some time that he had
been both scolded and teased by his friends, like a wild boar at bay, he
retorted;

"Gentlemen, I have listened for some time to your jokes and reproofs. I
would like you to understand that I have good reason to reflect and keep