“What have you done,” she said, “with that handsome, well-made, corpulent man whom I often saw with you?”
“Lamme?” said he.
“What have you done with him?” she said.
Ulenspiegel replied:
“He eats, in the booths, hard eggs, smoked eels, salt fish, zuertjes, and all that he can put under his tooth; and all to look for his wife. Why art thou not his wife, pretty one? Wouldst thou like fifty florins? Wouldst thou like a gold necklace?”
But she, crossing herself:
“I am not to buy or to take,” said she.
“Dost thou love naught?” said he.
“I love thee as my neighbour, but I love above all my Lord Christ and Madame the Virgin, who bid me live a chaste life. Hard and heavy are its duties, but God is our helper, we poor women. Yet there are some that succumb. Is thy big friend happy?”
Ulenspiegel replied: