Cole,
being rang for by him, came in and was made acquainted, in
terms of the utmost joy and rapture, with his triumphant cer-
tainty of my virtue, and the finishing stroke he had given it
in the course of the night: of which, he added, she would see
proof enough in bloody characters on the sheets.
You may guess how a woman of her turn of address and
experience humour'd the jest, and played him off with mixed
exclamations of shame, anger, compassion for me, and of her
being pleased that all was so well over: in which last, I
believe, she was certainly sincere. And now, as the objec-
tion which she had represented as an invincible one, to my
lying the first night at his lodgings (which were studiously
calculated for freedom of intrigues), on the account of my
maiden fears and terrors at the thoughts of going to a
gentleman's chambers, and being alone with him in bed, was
surmounted, she pretended to persuade me, in favour to him,
that I should go there to him whenever he pleas'd, and still
keep up all the necessary appearances of working with her,
that I might not lose, with my character, the prospect of
getting a good husband, and at the same time her house would
be kept the safer from scandal. All this seem'd so reason-
able, so considerate to Mr. Norbert, that he never once per-
ceived that she did not want him to resort to her house, lest
he might in time discover certain inconsistencies with the
character she had set out with to him: besides that, this
plan greatly flattered his own ease, and views of liberty.
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