Page:Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749, vol. 1).pdf/220

 do him justice, he never gave me the least reason to complain either of any tendency to encroach upon me for the liberties I allow'd him, or of his indiscretion in blabing them. There is then a fatality in love, or have loved him I must; for he was really a treasure, a bit for the bonne bouche of a duchess: and, to say the truth, my liking for him was so extreme, that it was distinguishing very nicely to deny that I lov'd him.

My happiness, however, with him did not last long, but found an end from my own imprudent neglect. After having taken even superfluous precautions against a discovery, our success in repeated meetings embolden'd me to omit the barely necessary ones.About a month after our first intercourse, one fatal morning (the season Mr. H. rarely, or never visited me in) I was in my closet, where my toilette stood, in nothing but my shift, a bed-gown and under-petty-coat. Will was with me, and both ever too well dispos'd to baulk an opportunity: for my part, a warm whim, a wanton toy had just taken me, and I had challeng'd my man to execute it on the spot, who hesitated not to comply with my humour; I was