‘Now we’ll have some fun,’ said the countess. ‘We’ll watch till my husband is coming home, and then as he comes into the room you just be kissing me; he will be so astonished to see a stranger kissing me, he will not know what to make of it. Then in five minutes we will tell him who you really are, and it will make a good laugh.’
The brother thought it would be a good joke, and they did as she had said.
It happened, however, that by accident[2] the count did not that day as usual come into his wife’s room, but passing along the terrace in front of it, he saw, as she had arranged, one who was a stranger to him kissing her.
Then he went into his room, and calling his confidential servant[3] he told him what had happened, and adding, ‘You will never see me any more,’ went his way.
The countess waited on and on for her husband to come in, full of impatience to have her joke out. But when she found he did not come at all, she went into his room to seek him there. There she found the servant, who told her what the Count had said, and the desperate resolution he had taken.
‘What have I done!’ exclaimed the terrified Countess. ‘Is it possible that I am to be punished thus for a harmless joke!’
Then, without saying anything to anyone she wrapped her travelling cloak about her, and set out to seek her husband.
The Count had walked on till he could walk no farther, and then he had gone into an inn, where he hired a room for a week; but he went wandering about the woods in misery and despair, and only came in at an hour of night.[4]
The Countess also walked on till she could walk no farther, and thus she came to the same inn; but as she had only a woman’s strength the same journey took her a much longer time, and it was the afternoon of the next day when she arrived. She too asked for a room, but the host assured her with many expressions of regret, that he had not a single room vacant. The Countess pleaded her weariness; the man reiterated his inability to serve her.
‘Give me only a room to rest a little while in,’ she begged; ‘just a couple of hours, and then I will start again and journey farther.’