ATTENTIVE. "And how did his good wife take it when she saw that he
had no amendment, but that he returned to his old courses again?"
WISEMAN. "Why, it broke her heart; it was a worse disappointment to
her than the cheat that he gave her in marriage; at least she laid
it more to heart, and could not so well grapple with it. You must
think that she had put up many a prayer to God for him before, even
all the time that he had carried it so badly to her; and now when he
was so affrighted in his sickness, and so desirous that he might
live and mend, poor woman, she thought that the time was come for
God to answer her prayers; nay, she did not fail with gladness to
whisper out amongst her friends that it was so. But when she saw
herself disappointed by her husband turning rebel again, she could
not stand up under it, but fell into a languishing distemper, and in
a few weeks gave up the ghost."