Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/175

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OF PARENTAL RESTRAINT.
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my child, let us shew your husband the fair sheet which we have made." Then standing up, she gave one corner of the sheet to her daughter and held the other herself, extending it before him so as to favour the departure of the lover; who took the hint and escaped. When he had got clearly off, "Now," said the mother, "spread the sheet upon the bed with your own hands—I have done my part in weaving it[1]."


APPLICATION.

My beloved, the soldier is any man who is a wanderer in this world. The wife is the flesh; the mother, is the world; and the sheet, worldly vanities.

  1. This fable is in Alphonsus De Clericali Disciplina.