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 allow me to form any plausible supposition as to what they were about.

Little by little the bucking and pounding as well as the creaking increased both in time as well as in strength. From an adagio it had got to be a presto, then a prestissimo. I was dreadfully frightened lest the whole bedstead would come down upon me and crush me. I therefore crept to the farthermost end of the bed, and kept, ready to slip out, if the slightest accident happened.

When there I heard the nurse whisper to Guillaume to take care lest he might wake the marmot—that was me—with the noise he was making.

"The devil take the brat," muttered the conqueror, "it is time he was got out of your room."

Thereupon the thumps and thuds increased, then a puffing and panting, intermingled with grunts of satisfaction, and wriggles which seemed more of pleasure than of pain, together with an undescribable gurgling.

Then in a suppressed sotto voce: There I'm doing it, ah!—louder, shudderingly—I'm