Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. I.djvu/80

 woman?"

"Oh, yes! several; though by chance, rather than by choice. Nevertheless, for a Frenchman of my age, I had begun life rather late. My mother—although considered a very light person, much given to pleasnrepleasure [sic]—had taken more care of my bringing up than many serious, prosy, fussy women would have done; for she always had a great deal of tact and observation. Therefore I had never been put as a boarder into any school, for she knew that such places of education are—as a rule—only hot-beds of vice. Who is the interne of either sex who has not begun life by tribadism, onanism, or sodomy.

"My mother, besides, was frightened lest I might have inherited my father's sensual disposition, and she, therefore, did her best to withhold me from all early temptations, and in fact she really succeeded in keeping me out of mischief.

"I was therefore at fifteen and sixteen far more innocent than any of my school fellows, yet I managed to hide my utter ignorance by pretending to be more profligate and blasé.