m content to be blindfolded as much as you like,
provided I am cured in the long run."

The two lovers were very joyful when they saw that the knight allowed
his eyes to be bandaged. When all the arrangements had been made, and
the knight had his eyes bandaged, master surgeon pretended to leave as
usual, promising to come back soon to take off the bandage.

He did not go very far, for he threw the girl on a couch not far from
the patient, and with quite a different instrument to that which he had
employed on the knight, visited the secret cloisters of the chambermaid.

Three, four, five, six times did he perform on the pretty girl without
the knight noticing it, for though he heard the storm he did not know
what it was; but as it still continued, his suspicions were aroused,
and this time, when he heard the noise of the combat, he tore off
the bandages and plasters and threw them away, and saw the two lovers
struggling together, and seeming as though they would eat each other, so
closely united were their mouths.

"What is this, master surgeon?" cried he. "Have you blindfolded me in
order to do me this wrong. Is my eye to be cured by this means? Tell
me--did you prepare this trick for me? By St. John, I suspect I was more
often visited for love of my chambermaid than for my eyes. Well! well!
I am in your hands now, sir, and cannot yet revenge myself, but the day
will come when I will make you remember me."

The surgeon, who was a thoroughly good fellow, began to laugh, and made
his peace with the knight, and I believe that, after the eye was cured,
they agreed to divide the work between them.

*****

[Illustration: 88.jpg A Husband in hiding.]

STORY THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH -- A HUSBAND IN HIDING. [88]

By Alardin.

_Of a poor, simple peasant married to a nice, pleasant woman, who did
much as she liked, and who in order that she might be alone with her
lover, shut up her husband in the pigeon-house in the manner you will
hear._

In a pretty, little town near here, but which I will not name, there
recently occurred an incident which will furnish a short story. There
lived there a good, simple, unlettered peasant, married to a nice,
pleasant woman, and as long as he had plenty to eat and drink he cared
for little else. He was accustomed to often go into the country to
a house he had there, and stay, three, or four days--sometimes more,
sometimes less, as suited his pleasure, and left his wife to enjoy