then,” quoth the husband, “can the priest also lie with you?” “Sir,” replied she, “what art the priest employs I know not; but door there is none, however well locked, in the house, that comes not open at his touch; and he tells me that, being come to the door of my room, before he opens it, he says certain words, whereby my husband forthwith falls asleep; whereupon he opens the door, and enters the room, and lies with me; and so ’tis always, without fail.”  “Then ’tis very wrong, Madam, and you must give it up altogether,” said the husband.  “That, Sir,” returned the lady, “I doubt I can never do; for I love him too much.”  “In that case,” quoth the husband, “I cannot give you absolution.”  “The pity of it!” ejaculated the lady; “I came not hither to tell you falsehoods:  if I could give it up, I would.”  “Madam,” replied the husband, “indeed I am sorry for you; for I see that you are in a fair way to lose your soul.  However, this I will do for you; I will make special supplication to God on your behalf; and perchance you may be profited thereby.  And from time to time I will send you one of my young clerks; and you will tell him whether my prayers have been of any help to you, or no, and if they have been so, I shall know what to do next.”  “Nay, Sir,” quoth the lady, “do not so; send no man to me at home; for, should my husband come to know it, he is so jealous that nothing in the world would ever disabuse him of the idea that he came but for an evil purpose, and so I should have no peace with him all the year long.”  Madam, returned the husband, “have no fear; rest assured that I will so order matters that you shall never hear a word about it from him.”  “If you can make sure of that,” quoth the lady, “I have no more to say.”  And so, her confession ended, and her penance enjoined, she rose, and went to mass, while the luckless husband, fuming and fretting, hasted to divest himself of his priest’s trappings, and then went home bent upon devising some means to bring the priest and his wife together, and take his revenge upon them both.

When the lady came home from church she read in her husband’s face that she had spoiled his Christmas for him, albeit he dissembled to the uttermost, lest she should discover what he had done, and supposed himself to have learned.  His mind was made up to keep watch for the priest that very night by his own front door.  So to the lady he said:—­“I have to go out to-night to sup and sleep; so thou wilt take care that the front door, and the mid-stair door, and the bedroom door are well locked; and for the rest thou mayst go to bed, at thine own time.”  “Well and good,” replied the lady:  and as soon as she was able, off she hied her to the aperture, and gave the wonted signal, which Filippo no sooner heard, than he was at the spot.  The lady then told him what she had done in the morning, and what her husband had said to her after breakfast, adding:—­“Sure I am that he will not stir out of the house, but will keep watch beside the door; wherefore contrive to come in to-night by the roof, that we may be together.”  “Madam,” replied the gallant, nothing loath, “trust me for that.”