fate requires that
I should perish, it is at least more honourable to die in the house than
to be starved to death in the garden but then," continued he, "I may,
thereby, perhaps, expose a person whom some unforeseen accident may, at
this very instant, have reduced to greater perplexity than even I myself
am in." This thought supplied him with a necessary degree of patience
and fortitude against the enemies he had to contend with; he therefore
began to walk quickly to and fro, with resolution to wait, as long as he
could keep alive, the end of an adventure which had such an uncomfortable
beginning. All this was to no purpose; for though he used every effort
to keep himself warm, and though muffled up in a thick cloak, yet he
began to be benumbed in all his limbs, and the cold gained the ascendancy
over all his amorous vivacity and eagerness. Daybreak was not far off,
and judging now that, though the accursed door should even be opened, it
would be to no purpose, he returned, as well as he could, to the place
from whence he had set out upon this wonderful expedition.

All the faggots that were in the cottage were hardly able to unfreeze
him: the more he reflected on his adventure, the circumstances attending
it appeared still the more strange and unaccountable; but so far from
accusing the charming countess, he suffered a thousand different
anxieties on her account. Sometimes he imagined that her husband might
have returned unexpectedly; sometimes, that she might suddenly have been
taken ill; in short, that some insuperable obstacle had unluckily
interposed, and prevented his happiness, notwithstanding his mistress's
kind intentions towards him. "But wherefore," said he, "did she forget
me in that cursed garden? Is it possible that she could not find a
single moment to make me at least, some sign or other, if she could
neither speak to me nor give me admittance?" He knew not which of these
conjectures to rely upon, or how to answer his own questions; but as he
flattered himself that everything would succeed better the next night,
after having vowed not to set a foot again into that unfortunate garden,
he gave orders to be awakened as soon as any person should inquire for
him: then he laid himself down in one of the worst beds in the world, and
slept as sound as if he had been in the best: he supposed that he should
not be awakened, but either by a letter or a message from Lady
Chesterfield; but he had scarce slept two hou