With that he knocked again, and cried, "Open the door! I am your
husband."

"I know my husband well," quoth she, "and it is not his custom to return
home so late at night, when he is in the town. Go away, and do not knock
here at this hour."

But he knocked all the more, and called her by name once or twice. Yet
she pretended not to know him, and asked why he came at that hour, but
for all reply he said nothing but, "Open! Open!"

"Open!" said she. "What! are you still there you rascally whore-monger?
By St. Mary, I would rather see you drown than come in here! Go! and
sleep as badly as you please in the place where you came from."

Then her good husband grew angry, and thundered against the door as
though he would knock the house down, and threatened to beat his wife,
such was his rage,--of which she had not great fear; but at length,
because of the noise he made, and that she might the better speak her
mind to him, she opened the door, and when he entered, God knows whether
he did not see an angry face, and have a warm greeting. For when her
tongue found words from a heart overcharged with anger and indignation,
her language was as sharp as well-ground Guingant razors.

And, amongst other things, she reproached him that he had wickedly
pretended a journey in order that he might try her, and that he was a
coward and a recreant, unworthy to have such a wife as she was.

Our good comrade, though he had been angry, saw how wrong he had been,
and restrained his wrath, and the indignation that in his heart he had