"
Now some days afterwards they arrived at Antioch, where Giosefo prevailed
upon Melisso to tarry with him and rest a day or two; and meeting with
but a sorry welcome on the part of his wife, he told her to take her
orders as to supper from Melisso, who, seeing that such was Giosefo's
will, briefly gave her his instructions; which the lady, as had been her
wont, not only did not obey, but contravened in almost every particular.
Which Giosefo marking:--"Wast thou not told," quoth he angrily, "after
what fashion thou wast to order the supper?" Whereto:--"So!" replied the
lady haughtily: "what means this? If thou hast a mind to sup, why take
not thy supper? No matter what I was told, 'tis thus I saw fit to order
it. If it like thee, so be it: if not, 'tis thine affair." Melisso heard
the lady with surprise and inward disapprobation: Giosefo retorted:--"Ay
wife, thou art still as thou wast used to be; but I will make thee mend
thy manners." Then, turning to Melisso:--"Friend," quoth he, "thou wilt
soon prove the worth of Solomon's counsel: but, prithee, let it not irk
thee to look on, and deem that what I shall do is but done in sport; and
if thou shouldst be disposed to stand in my way, bear in mind how we were
answered by the muleteer, when we pitied his mule." "I am in thy house,"
replied Melisso, "and thy pleasure is to me law."
Thereupon Giosefo took a stout cudgel cut from an oak sapling, and hied
him into the room whither the lady had withdrawn from the table in high
dudgeon, seized her by the hair, threw her on to the floor at his feet,
and fell a beating her amain with the cudgel.
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