Whilst we were in this quandary,
the landlady takes the candle and lights us to our apartment,
through a long yard, at the end of which it stood, separate
from the body of the house. Thus we suffer'd ourselves to
be conducted, without saying a word in opposition to it; and
there, in a wretched room, with a bed answerable, we were
left to pass the night together, as a thing quite of course.
For my part, I was so incredibly innocent as not even then to
think much more harm of going to bed with the young man than
with one of our dairy-wenches; nor had he, perhaps, any other
notions than those of innocence, till such a fair occasion
put them into his head.
"Before either of us undressed, however, he put out
the candle; and the bitterness of the weather made it a kind
of necessity for me to go into bed: slipping then my cloaths
off, I crept under the bed-cloaths, where I found the young
stripling already nestled, and the touch of his warm flesh
rather pleas'd than alarm'd me. I was indeed too much dis-
turbed with the novelty of my condition to be able to sleep;
but then I had not the least thought of harm. But, oh! how
powerful are the instincts of nature! how little is there
wanting to set them in action! The young man, sliding his
arm under my body, drew me gently towards him, as if to keep
himself and me warmer; and the heat I felt from joining our
breasts, kindled another that I had hitherto never felt, and
was, even then, a stranger to the nature of.
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