Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. II.djvu/145

 and then you will understand why she preferred her liberty to the ties of matrimony."

"She was fond of you, was she not?"

"Yes, very; and so was I of her. Moreover—had I not been given to those propensities which I dared not avow to her, and which only tribades can understand; had I, like other men of my age, been living a merry life of fornication with whores, mistresses, and lively grisettes—I should often have made her the confidante of my erotic exploits, for in the moment of bliss our prodigal feelings are often blunted by the too great excess, whilst the remembrance doled out at our will is a real twofold pleasure of the senses and of the mind.

"Teleny, however, had of late become a kind of bar between us, and I think she had got to be rather jealous of him, for his name seemed to have become as objectionable to her as it formerly had been to me."

"Did she begin to suspect your liaison?"

"I did not know whether she suspected it, or if she was beginning to be jealous of the affection I bore him.