d, who understood him perfectly well, and
entered into his designs. But, be that as it would, he led her to
a coach, went into it with her, and brought her to a very handsome
apartment, with a bed in it; but whether it was a bagnio or not, she
could not tell, having spoken to nobody but himself. But when they were
alone together, and her inamorato began to proceed to those extremities
which instantly discover the sex, she remarked, that no description
could paint up to the life, the mixture of pique, confusion and
disappointment, that appeared in his countenance, joined to the mournful
exclamation: "By heavens, a woman!" This at once opened her eyes, which
had been shut in downright stupidity. However, as if he had meant to
retrieve that escape, he still continued to toy with and fondle her,
but with so staring an alteration from extreme warmth into a chill and
forced civility, that even Emily herself could not but take notice
of it, and now began to wish she had paid more regard to Mrs. Cole's
premonitions against ever engaging with a stranger. And now an excess of
timidity succeeded to an excess of confidence, and she thought herself
so much at his mercy and discretion, that she stood passive throughout
the whole progress of his prelude: for now, whether the impressions
of so great a beauty had even made him forgive her sex, or whether her
appearance or figure in that dress still humoured his first illusion, he
recovered by degrees a good part of his first warmth, and keeping Emily
with her breeches still unbuttoned, stript them down to her knees, and
gently impelling her to lean down, with her face against the bed-side,
placed her so, that the double way, between the double rising behind,
presented the choice fair to him, and he was so fairly set on a
mis-direction, as to give the girl no small alarms for fear of losing
a maidenhead she had not dreamt of. However, her complaints, and a
resistance, gentle, but firm, checked and brought him to himself again;
so that turning his steed's head, he drove him at length in the right
road, in which his imagination having probably made the most of those
resemblances that flattered his taste, he got, with much ado, to his
journey's end: after which, he led her out himself, and walking with her
two or three streets length, got her a chair, when making her a present
not any thing inferior to what she could have expected, he left her,
well recommended to the chairmen, who, on her di