t she would not let me take any liberties
with her before Louise. She went out leaving me alone with her, taking
my money when she returned. It is a wonder to me now how I stood all
this, felt I was being humbugged, played with, and yet things went on as
I describe. Three weeks had elapsed, or more, and yet I had never felt
Louise's cunt. So I told Camille she was humbugging me. Louise got funny
in her behaviour to Camille, said she would or wouldn't, and one day
they had a quarrel, in which Louise insolently remarked about something
she wanted, that Camille would do well not to show the point of her nose
in the village any more. When alone I said to Camille, I was not to
have the girl I supposed. Who hindered me? "Help me." "How?" Being in
a blackguard humour I said, "Make her drunk, and then I will have her."
No, it should never be said that that happened in her rooms; if a woman
let a man of her own free will, well and good; if he got into her fair
and square, good; a woman might do what she liked,--it was natural to
have a man;--if Louise liked it, it was not her business; but she would
not have her made drunk.

I said she was always in the way. She said she must live there. "You
would like me to go out of town for a fortnight." Said I, "That is the
best thing you can do." She said she could not.

I insisted, and at length she agreed to go for ten days, I paying her I
think fifteen pounds for her lodgings. Off she went, and I dare say went
to a friend's close by, I never knew. She said she was sorry she had
brought the girl to London. Louise was not to know that I was aware of
her departure. The last words she said to me were, "I suppose when you
have her you will leave me." I replied I had no such intention, nor had
I; but a gay woman is a good judge of the future.

I must now describe the lodgings more closely. The ground-floor was
occupied by a cloth merchant; there was no shop, but in the windows were
some bales of cloth, a brass name-plate was on the inner door, the
top of the house was the cloth-dealer's store. The man was rarely in
England, the entrance to the shop from the hall was always locked, and I
never saw more than one man enter it.

The first floor Camille had. On the second floor was a grumpy old woman
named Boileau; she took charge of the house. I scarcely ever saw the old
woman excepting when she opened the door, and then she neither spoke or
looked at me. Until Louise came, Camille had had a F