nd gaiety, that the beauty of the
prospect, the serenity of the weather, and the tender politeness of our
sprightly gallants, naturally led us into.

After tea, and taking a turn in the garden, my particular, who was the
master of the house, and had in no sense schemed this party of pleasure
for a dry one, proposed to us, with that frankness which his familiarity
at Mrs. Cole's entitled him to, as the weather was excessively hot,
to bathe together, under a commodious shelter that he had prepared
expressly for that purpose, in a creek of the river, with which a
side-door of the pavilion immediately communicated, and where we might
be sure of having our diversion out, safe from interruption, and with
the utmost privacy.

Emily, who never refused anything, and I, who ever delighted in bathing,
and had no exception to the person who proposed it, or to those pleasure
it was easy to guess it implied, took care, on this occasion, not to
wrong our training at Mrs. Cole's, and agreed to it with as good a grace
as we could. Upon which, without loss of time, we returned instantly to
the pavilion, one door of which opened into a tent, pitched before it,
that with its marquise, formed a pleasing defense again the sun, or the
weather, and was besides as private as we could wish. The lining of it,
embossed cloth, represented a wild forest foliage, from the top, down to
the sides, which, in the same stuff, were figured with fluted pilasters,
with their spaces between filled with flower vases, the whole having a
pay effect croon the eye, wherever you turned it.

Then it reached sufficiently into the water, yet contained convenient
benches round it, on the dry ground, either to keep our clothes, or...,
or..., in short for more uses than resting upon. There was a side-table
too, loaded with sweetmeats, jellies, and other eatables, and bottles
of wine and cordials, by way of occasional relief from any rawness, or
chill of the water, or from any faintness from whatever cause; and in
fact, my gallant, who understood chere entiere perfectly, and who, for
taste (even if you would not approve this specimen of it) might have
been comptroller of pleasures to a Roman emperor, had left no requisite
towards convenience or luxury unprovided.

As soon as we had looked round this inviting spot, and every preliminary
of privacy was duly settled, strip was the word: when the young
gentlemen soon dispatched the undressing each his partner and reduced