whom he had spoken, but (she added) he was so importunate that she could
not help his entering her chamber at a time when every one else did so.

"Of such times as those," said the Prince, "I do not speak, for I can go
as well as he, and see all what you are doing. But I have been told that
he goes after you are in bed, and this I look upon as so extraordinary
that, if you should continue in this mode of life without declaring him
to be your husband, you will be disgraced more than any woman that ever
lived."

She swore to him with all the oaths she could utter that the other was
neither her husband nor her lover, but only as importunate a gentleman
as there well could be.

"Since he is troublesome to you," said the Prince, "I promise you that I
will rid you of him."

"What!" asked the lady. "Would you kill him?"

"No, no," said the Prince, "but I will give him to understood that it
is not in such a place as this, not in such a house as the King's, that
ladies are to be put to shame. And I swear to you by the faith of the
lover that I am, that if, after I have spoken with him, he does not
correct himself, I will correct him in such a manner as to make him a
warning to others."

So saying he went away, and on leaving the room failed not to meet the
Lord des Cheriots on his way in. To him he spoke after the fashion that
you have heard, assuring him that the first time he was found there
after an hour at which gentlemen might reasonably visit the ladies, he