A characteristic touch of grimness is added to the story by making the husband a deformed man. Donne, however, merely laughs at his deformity, as he bids the lady laugh at the jealousy that reduces her to tears:
O give him many thanks, he is courteous,
That in suspecting kindly warneth us.
We must not, as we used, flout openly,
In scoffing riddles, his deformity;
Nor at his board together being set,
With words nor touch scarce looks adulterate.
And he proposes that, now that the husband seems to have discovered them, they shall henceforth carry on their intrigue at some distance from where
He, swol’n and pampered with great fare,
Sits down and snorts, cag’d in his basket chair.