d to hold her, but her
disorder increased in violence, and the coverlet was disarranged to such
a degree that I could see the most exquisite naked charms imaginable. At
last she grew calm, and her eyes closed as if exhausted; she remained in
the most voluptuous position that desire itself could have invented. I
began to get very excited. How was I to look on such beauties without
desiring to possess them? At this point her wretched husband left the
room, saying he was gone to fetch some water. I saw the snare, and my
self-respect prevented my being caught in it. I had an idea that the
whole scene had been arranged with the intent that I should deliver
myself up to brutal pleasure, while the proud and foolish woman would be
free to disavow all participation in the fact. I constrained myself, and
gently veiled what I would fain have revealed in all its naked beauty. I
condemned to darkness these charms which this monster of a woman only
wished me to enjoy that I might be debased.

Stuard was long enough gone. When he came back with the water-bottle
full, he was no doubt surprised to find me perfectly calm, and in no
disorder of any kind, and a few minutes afterwards I went out to cool
myself by the banks of the Rhone.

I walked along rapidly, feeling enraged with myself, for I felt that the
woman had bewitched me. In vain I tried to bring myself to reason; the
more I walked the more excited I became, and I determined that after what
I had seen the only cure for my disordered fancy was enjoyment, brutal or
not. I saw that I should have to win her, not by an appeal to sentiment
but by hard cash, without caring what sacrifices I made. I regretted my
conduct, which then struck me in the light of false delicacy, for if I
had satisfied my desires and she chose to turn prude, I might have
laughed her to scorn, and my position would have been unassailable. At
last I determined on telling the husband that I would give him
twenty-five louis if he could obtain me an interview in which I could
satisfy my desires.

Full of this idea I went back to the inn, and had my dinner in my own
room without troubling to enquire after her. Le Duc told me that she was
dining in her room too, and that the landlord had told the company that
she would not take her meals in public any more. This was information I
possessed already.

After dinner I called on the good-natured Dolci, who introduced me to his
father, an excellent man, but not rich eno