[037]
Pyrrhus, who had witnessed what had passed, said
to himself: Nobly indeed has my lady begun, and on such wise as promises well for the
felicity of my love. God grant that she so continue. [038]And even so Lydia did:
for not many days after she had killed the
sparrow-hawk, she, being with Nicostratus in her chamber, from caressing passed to toying
and trifling with him, and he, sportively pulling her by the hair, gave her
occasion to fulfil the second of
Pyrrhus' demands; which she did by nimbly laying hold of one of the lesser tufts of his
beard, and, laughing the while, plucking it so hard that she tore it out of his
chin.
[039]
Which Nicostratus somewhat resenting: "Now what cause hast thou,"
quoth she, "to make such a wry face? 'Tis but that I have plucked some half-dozen hairs
from thy beard. Thou didst not feel it as much as did I but now thy tugging of my
hair."
[040]
And so they continued jesting and sporting with one another, the lady
jealously guarding the tuft that she had torn from the beard, which the very same day she
sent to her cherished lover.
[041]
The third demand caused the lady more thought;
but, being amply endowed with wit, and powerfully seconded
by Love, she failed not to hit upon an apt expedient.
