“Will you, darling, represent that group with me?”

A look of compliance was C——­ C——­’s only answer; she was not yet inured to amorous pleasures as much as her lovely teacher.  While I was laughing with delight, the two friends were getting ready, and in a few minutes we were all three in bed, and in a state of nature.  At first, satisfied with enjoying the sight of the barren contest of my two bacchanalians, I was amused by their efforts and by the contrast of colours, for one was dark and the other fair, but soon, excited myself, and consumed by all the fire of voluptuousness, I threw myself upon them, and I made them, one after the other, almost faint away from the excess of love and enjoyment.

Worn out and satiated with pleasure, I invited them to take some rest.  We slept until we were awakened by the alarum, which I had taken care to set at four o’clock.  We were certain of turning to good account the two hours we had then to spare before parting company, which we did at the dawn of day, humiliated at having to confess our exhaustion, but highly pleased with each other, and longing for a renewal of our delightful pleasures.

The next day, however, when I came to think of that rather too lively night, during which, as is generally the case, Love had routed Reason, I felt some remorse.  M——­ M——­ wanted to convince me of her love, and for that purpose she had combined all the virtues which I attached to my own affection—­namely, honour, delicacy, and truth, but her temperament, of which her mind was the slave, carried her towards excess, and she prepared everything in order to give way to it, while she awaited the opportunity of making me her accomplice.  She was coaxing love to make it compliant, and to succeed in mastering it, because her heart, enslaved by her senses, never reproached her.  She likewise tried to deceive herself by endeavouring to forget that I might complain of having been surprised.  She knew that to utter such a complaint I would have to acknowledge myself weaker or less courageous than she was, and she relied upon my being ashamed to make such a confession.  I had no doubt whatever that the absence of the ambassador had been arranged and concerted beforehand.  I could see still further, for it seemed evident to me that the two conspirators had foreseen that I would guess the artifice, and that, feeling stung to the quick, in spite of all my regrets, I would not shew myself less generous than they had been themselves.  The ambassador having first procured me a delightful night, how could I refuse to let him enjoy as pleasant a one?  My friends had argued very well, for, in spite of all the objections of my mind, I saw that I could not on my side put any obstacle in their way.  C——­ C——­ was no impediment to them.  They were certain of conquering her the moment she was not hindered by my presence.  It rested entirely with M——­ M——­, who had perfect control over her.  Poor girl!  I saw her on the high road