LVII
The Woman and the Pear-tree
There was once a rich man who had a very beautiful woman to wife, and this man loved her much and was very jealous of her.
Now it happened, in God’s pleasure, that this man had an illness of the eyes whence he became blind and saw the light no more. [[131]]
Now it befell that this man did not leave his wife, nor ever let her out of his reach, for he feared she might go astray.
Thus it chanced that a man of the countryside fell in love with this woman, and not seeing how he could find an opportunity to converse with her—for her husband was always at her side—he came near to losing his reason for love of her.
And the woman seeing him so enamoured of her, said to him: you see, I can do nothing, for this man never leaves me.
So the good man did not know what to do or say. It seemed he would die for love. He could find no way of meeting the woman alone.
The woman, seeing the behaviour of this gentle man and all that he did, thought of a way of helping him. She made a long tube of cane, and placed it to the ear of the man, and spoke to him in this fashion so that her husband could not hear. And she said to the good man: I am sorry for you, and I have thought of a way of helping you. Go into the garden, and climb up a pear-tree which has many fine pears, and wait for me up there, and I will come up to you. [[132]]
The good man went at once into the garden, and climbed up the pear-tree, and awaited the woman.