Volume IV Part 13 (1/2)

”Are you contented, dear?” I said

”I am quite happy”

”Then I hope you will be kind, and find room for me in your bed”

”You may come if you like, but I must tell you that you will not find me a maid, as I have had one lover”

”You told uess you would be ly; all the reat stickler for entle as a laaze on all those charms of which my hands and my lips disputed the possession; and the notion that I was master of all these treasures put fire in all my veins, but her submissive air distressed me

”How is it you do not partake my desires?” said I

”I dare not, lest you take ht have prompted such an answer, but the real timidity and the frankness hich these words were uttered could not have been assuain possession of her I took offinto bed to her I was astonished to find her a maid

”Why did you tella lie of that sort before”

”All the salad that I seem as if I had done so”

”Tell me all about it”

”Certainly I will, for I want to win your confidence This is the story:

”Two years ago h she was hot-tempered, still loved me

I was a needle-woman, and earned froave ht of such a thing, and when h I had been brought up fro men when I met them in the street, and never to reply to them when they addressed any i young man, a native of Genoa, and a et her to wash sos which the sea-water had stained When he saw me he was very complimentary, but in an honest way I liked hiain every evening My mother was always present at our interviews, and he looked at me and talked to me, but did not so much as ask to kissman liked h to hio to Genoa in a sed to hioods He assured us that he would return again the next spring and declare his intentions He said he hoped he should find ood as ever, and still without any lover This was enough; ether at the door till ht When he went I would shut the door and lie down beside my mother, as always asleep

”Four or five days before his departure, he took o with hilass of Muscat at a Greek's, who kept his tavern open all night We were only away for half an hour, and then it was that he first kissed ot home I found my mother awake, and told her all; it seemed so harmless to me

”Next day, excited by the recollection of what had happened the night before, I ith hied in caresses which were no longer innocent, as ell knew

However, we forgave each other, as we had abstained from the chief liberty

”The day after, ht--took leave of ranting what I desired as much as he We went to the Greek's, ate and drank, and our heated senses gained love's cause; we forgot our duty, and fancied our misdemeanour a triumph

”Afterwards we fell asleep, and okeour fault in the clear, cold light of day We parted sorrowful rather than rejoicing, and the receptionI assured her that e would take away the shame of my sin, and with this she took up a stick and would have done for me, if I had not taken to my heels,

”Once in the street I knew not where to turn, and taking refuge in a church I stayed there like one in a dreary, I had no refuge, nothing but the clothes I wore, nothing that would get me a morsel of bread A woman accosted me in the street I knew her and I also knew that she kept a servants' agency I asked her forthwith if she could get ,' said she, 'but it is for a gay woood deal of difficulty in re virtuous'

”'I can keep off the infection,' I answered, 'and in the position I am in I cannot pick and choose'

”She thereupon took hted to see hted when I told her that I had never had anything to do with a h, for in the week I spent at that profligate wo insults that an honest girl ever suffered No sooner did the men who caed to slake their brutal lust upon old if I would submit to their caresses I refused and was reviled, but that was not all Five or six tiusting scenes enacted between my ht theht, overwhel service for a twelve-sous piece I could not bear this sort of lifenothened, but you were so kind and polite as you went away that I fell in love with you directly, thinking that Providence must have sent you to snatch ht calm my mother and persuade her to take me back till my lover came to marry me I was undeceived, and I saw that she took ether yours, and I renounce er worthy

Take me as your maid, I will love you and you only; I will submit myself to you and do whatever you bid me”