Our caresses, our questions, our answers, for some
time observ'd no order; all crossing, or interrupting one
another in sweet confusion, whilst we exchang'd hearts at our
eyes, and renew'd the ratifications of a love unbated by time
or absence: not a breath, not a motion, not a gesture on
either side, but what was strongly impressed with it. Our
hands, lock'd in each other, repeated the most passionate
squeezes, so that their fiery thrill went to the heart again.
Thus absorbed, and concentre'd in this unutterable de-
light, I had not attended to the sweet author of it, being
thoroughly wet, and in danger of catching cold; when, in good
time, the landlady, whom the appearance of my equipage (which,
by-the-bye, Charles knew nothing of) had gain'd me an interest
in, for me and mine, interrupted us by bringing in a decent
shift of linen and cloaths, which now, somewhat recover'd into
a calmer composure by the coming in of a third person, I prest
him to take the benefit of, with a tender concern and anxiety
that made me tremble for his health.
The landlady leaving us again, he proceeded to shift; in
the act of which, tho' he proceeded with all that modesty
which became these first solemner instants of our re-meeting
after so long an absence, I could not contain certain snatches
of my eyes, lured by the dazzling discoveries of his naked
skin, that escaped him as he chang'd his linen, and which I
could not observe the unfaded life and complexion of without
emotions of tenderness and joy, that had himself too purely
for their object to partake of a loose or mistim'd desire.
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