Page:Des Grieux, The Prelude to Teleny.djvu/150

 and Guillaume was upon her. They were both moving up and down.

"This," thought I, "is the beast with two backs that the boys had once been so much amused about."

Straining my eyes, holding my breath, I advanced cautiously towards the edge of the bed. I now saw that she had her fat legs entwined in his, whilst both were clasped in each other's arms.

"There, there," said she, "move a little, but don't pull yourself up, there, like that push it in as far as you can, ah!"

In my eagerness to see, I bent just a little forwards, when—all at once—the mattress gave way under my feet, and lo! I slipped and fell with a tremendous thud on the floor.

Although I hurt my head and bruised my back, I durst not utter a moan, still I could not help whimpering a little as I tried to extricate myself from the sheet, but before I could get up the matron was by my side, clapping her hand on my mouth and almost smothering me, for fear I might scream.