in common, so that
neither the marriage nor aught else that might betide could impair their
perfect friendship.

2 To do honour to a guest it was then a common practice to
invite him to share the same bed as one's self and one's
wife. In this wise, long after Queen Margaret s time, we
find Louis XIII. sharing the bed of the Duke and Duchess of
Luynes. Tale vii. of the _Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_
(imitated in Malespini's _Ducento Novelle_ and the _Joyeuses
Adventures et nouvelles recreations_) relates what befell a
Paris goldsmith who took a carter to bed with him and his
spouse, and neglected to follow the usual custom of sleeping
in the middle. In Queen Margaret's time, it may be added,
the so-called "beds of honour" in the abodes of noblemen and
gentlemen were large enough to accommodate four or five
persons.--B. J. and Ed.

But after some time, worldly happiness, which is ever changeful in its
nature, could no longer abide in this too happy household. The husband,
without cause, lost the confidence that he had in his friend and in his
wife, and, being unable to conceal the truth from the latter, spoke to
her with angry words. At this she was greatly amazed, for he had charged
her in all things save one to treat his friend as she did himself, and
now he forbade her to speak with him except it were before others. She
made the matter known to her husband's friend, who did not believe her,
knowing as he well did that he had never purposed doing aught to grieve
his comrade. And as he was wont to hide nothing from him, he told him
what he had heard, begging him not to conceal the truth, for neither in
this nor in any other matter had he any desire to occasion the severance
of the friendship which had so long subsisted between them.

The married gentleman assured him that he had never thought of such a
thing, and that those who had spread such a rumour had foully lied.

Thereupon his comrade replied--

"I well know that jealousy is a passion as insupportable as love, and
were you inclined to jealousy even with regard to myself, I should not
blame you, for you could not help it. But there is a thing that is in
your power of which I should have reason to complain, and that is the
concealment of your distemper from me, seeing that never before was
thought, feeling or opinion concealed between us. If I were in love with
your wife, you should not impute it to