Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. I.djvu/156

 I wriggled to find a way out of this blind alley.

"She groaned, but more with pain than with pleasure. I groped my way in the dark and gave another thrust, but my battering ram only crushed its head the more against the stronghold. I was in doubt whether I had not better put her on her back and force my entrance in real battle array, but as I pulled back I felt that I was almost overcome—no, not almost—but quite so, for I squirted her all over with my creamy, life-giving fluid. She, poor thing, felt nothing, or very little, whilst I, unnerved as I had been till then, and exhausted by my nightly rambles, fell almost senseless by her side. She looked at me for a moment, then sprang up like a cat, caught up the key that had fallen out of my pocket, and with a bound—was out of the door.

"Being too jaded to follow her, I was, a few moments afterwards, fast asleep; the first sound rest I had had for a long time.

"For a few days I was somewhat quieted, I even gave up attending the concerts and haunts where I could see Réné; I almost began to think that in time I might get indifferent, and