But the danger was
too great, and after some hearty kisses of leave, and recom-
mendations of secrecy and discretion, I forc'd myself to
send him away, not without assurances of seeing him again,
to the same purpose, as soon as possible, and thrust a guinea
into his hands: not more, lest, being too flush of money, a
suspicion or discovery might arise from thence, having every
thing to fear from the dangerous indiscretion of that age in
which young fellows would be too irresistible, too charming,
if we had not that terrible fault to guard against.
Giddy and intoxicated as I was with such satiating
draughts of pleasure, I still lay on the couch, supinely
stretched out, in a delicious languor diffus'd over all my
limbs, hugging myself for being thus revenged to my heart's
content, and that in a manner so precisely alike, and on the
identical spot in which I had received the supposed injury.
No reflections on the consequences ever once perplex'd me,
nor did I make myself one single reproach for having, by
this step, completely entered myself of a profession more
decry'd than disused. I should have held it ingratitude to
the pleasure I had received to have repented of it; and
since I was now over the bar, I thought, by plunging over
head and ears into the stream I was hurried away by, to
drown all sense of shame or reflection.
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