that the stone made as it struck the water, never doubted that she had cast herself in:  so, bucket and rope in hand, he flung himself out of the house, and came running to the well to her rescue.  The lady had meanwhile hidden herself hard by the door, and seeing him make for the well, was in the house in a trice, and having locked the door, hied her to the window, and greeted him with:—­“’Tis while thou art drinking, not now, when the night is far spent, that thou shouldst temper thy wine with water.”  Thus derided, Tofano came back to the door, and finding his ingress barred, began adjuring her to let him in.  Whereupon, changing the low tone she had hitherto used for one so shrill that ’twas well-nigh a shriek, she broke out with:—­“By the Holy Rood, tedious drunken sot that thou art, thou gettest no admittance here to-night; thy ways are more than I can endure:  ’tis time I let all the world know what manner of man thou art, and at what hour of the night thou comest home.”  Tofano, on his part, now grew angry, and began loudly to upbraid her; insomuch that the neighbours, aroused by the noise, got up, men and women alike, and looked out of the windows, and asked what was the matter.  Whereupon the lady fell a weeping and saying:—­“’Tis this wicked man, who comes home drunk at even, or falls asleep in some tavern, and then returns at this hour.  Long and to no purpose have I borne with him; but ’tis now past endurance, and I have done him this indignity of locking him out of the house in the hope that perchance it may cause him to mend his ways.”

Tofano, on his part, told, dolt that he was, just what had happened, and was mighty menacing.  Whereupon:—­“Now mark,” quoth the lady to the neighbours, “the sort of man he is!  What would you say if I were, as he is, in the street, and he were in the house, as I am?  God’s faith, I doubt you would believe what he said.  Hereby you may gauge his sense.  He tells you that I have done just what, I doubt not, he has done himself.  He thought to terrify me by throwing I know not what into the well, wherein would to God he had thrown himself indeed, and drowned himself, whereby the wine of which he has taken more than enough, had been watered to some purpose!” The neighbours, men and women alike, now with one accord gave tongue, censuring Tofano, throwing all the blame upon him, and answering what he alleged against the lady with loud recrimination; and in short the bruit, passing from neighbour to neighbour, reached at last the ears of the lady’s kinsfolk; who hied them to the spot, and being apprised of the affair from this, that and the other of the neighbours, laid hands on Tofano, and beat him till he was black and blue from head to foot.  Which done, they entered his house, stripped it of all that belonged to the lady, and took her home with them, bidding Tofano look for worse to come.  Thus hard bested, and ruing the plight in which his jealousy had landed him, Tofano, who loved his wife with all his heart,