ld make her seem strange and
alien to me at times, even banal. At last our meetings became a
mere habit of sensuality, with all charm, and suggestion of
better things eliminated....

"I went with my friend George (who shared my room) one afternoon
and called at Annie's school; she kept an infants' school of her
own. She came to the door herself. It was the first time I had
seen her in daylight, and I thought her cheek-bones bigger; she
certainly was not so pretty as on the first evening I met her.
George had told me he would sleep away if I wanted the room, and
when next I met her she promised to come and sleep with me.
Before I had always met her on the grass, under trees. She came,
and the sight of her young limbs and breasts revived something of
my love for her, my better love. But she was insatiable and more
sensual every day. One day she came when I was not well, and
would not go away disappointed. I had met a very pretty girl
about this time, and now resolved to give Annie up, which I did
in the cruelest manner, cutting her dead, and refusing to answer
her letters and touching messages. I heard that she would cry for
hours, but I was harder than adamant....

"I thought myself very much in love with the very pretty girl for
whom I had thrown up Annie. She lived with her mother and two
sisters, one older than herself, the other a mere child. The
eldest sister, a handsome, dark girl like a Spaniard, was not
virtuous. She was good natured; too much so, and took her
pleasure with several of us, dying, not long after, of
consumption. I thought her sister, my girl, was virtuous, and I
meant to marry her--some day. At any rate, I saw her mother, who
lived in a well-furnished house and was a superior woman. This
did not prevent my trying to seduce her daughter. I did not
succeed for a long time, though she did not cease meeting me. The
sisters came to see us. I knew, one night, her sister was
upstairs with D. and I guessed what they were at, so I suggested
to her she should creep up on them for fun. She did so, came
back, excited and pale--and gave herself to me. But she was not a
virgin and in time I had a glimpse of her unhappy fate and her
mother's position. Her father was dead or divorced, and her
mother, I believe, was mistress to some wealthy bookmaker. I am
not su