against his thighs, down which it reached half way,
terrible even in its fall, whilst under the dejection of spirit and
flesh, which naturally followed his eyes, by turns, cast down towards
his struck standard, or piteously lifted to Louisa, seemed to require at
her hands what he had so sensibly parted from to her, and now ruefully
missed. But the vigour of nature, soon returning, dissipated the blast
of faintness which the common law of enjoyment had subjected him to;
and now his basket re-became his main concern, which I looked for, and
brought him, whilst Louisa restored his dress to its usual condition,
and afterwards pleased him perhaps more by taking all his flowers
off his hands, and paying him, at his rate, for them, than if she had
embarrassed him by a present, that he would have been puzzled to account
for, and might have put others on tracing the motives of.

Whether she ever returned to the attack I know not, and, to say truth,
I believe not. She had had her freak out, and had pretty plentifully
drowned her curiosity in a glut of pleasure, which, as it happened, had
no other consequence than that the lad, who retained only a confused
memory of the transaction, would, when he saw her, forget her in favour
of the next woman, tempted, on the report of his parts, to take him in.
Louisa herself did not long outstay this adventure at Mrs. Cole's (to
whom, by the bye, we took care not to boast of our exploit, till all
fear of consequences were clearly over): for an occasion presenting
itself of proving her passion for a young fellow, at the expense of her
discretion, proceeding all in character, she packed up her toilet, at
half a day's warning, and went with him abroad, since which I entirely
lost sight of her, and it never fell in my way to hear what became of
her.

But a few days after she had left us, two very occasion, not to wrong
our training at Mrs. Cole's, especially favourites, and free of her
academy, easily obtained her consent for Emily's and my acceptance of a
party of pleasure, at a little but agreeable house, belonging to one of
them situated not far up the river Thames, on the Surrey side.

Every thing being settled, and it being a fine summer day, but rather
of the warmest, we set out after dinner, and got to our rendezvous about
four in the afternoon; where, landing at the foot of a neat, joyous
pavilion, Emily and I were handed into it by our esquires, and there
drank tea with a cheerfulness a