“She knocked first at the Picard lady’s door. A maid opened, but her mistress refused to have one word to say to her visitor. She was an honest woman.
“The procuress went next to see the lady of Poitiers and solicit her favours for the gallant knight. This dame answered her:
“‘Prithee, go tell him who sent you that he is come to the wrong house, and that I am not the woman he takes me for.’
“She too is an honest woman; yet less honest than the first, in that she tried to appear more so.
“The procuress then went to see the lady from Tours, made the same offer to her as to the other, and showed her the ring.
“‘I’ faith,’ said the lady, ‘but the ring is right lovely.’
“‘’T is yours, an you will have it.’
“‘I will not have it at the price you set on it. My husband might catch me, and I should be doing him a grief he doth not deserve.’
“This lady of Touraine is a harlot, I trow, at bottom of her heart.
“The procuress left her and went straight to the dame of Lyons, who cried: