d with whom I was never tired of
communing.

I was not unaware of the opinion which my neighbours had formed of my
being improperly connected with Betty Lawrence. I am not sorry that I
fell into company with that girl. Her intercourse has instructed me in
what some would think impossible to be attained by one who had never
haunted the impure recesses of licentiousness in a city. The knowledge
which a residence in this town for ten years gave her audacious and
inquisitive spirit she imparted to me. Her character, profligate and
artful, libidinous and impudent, and made up of the impressions which a
city life had produced on her coarse but active mind, was open to my
study, and I studied it.

I scarcely know how to repel the charge of illicit conduct, and to
depict the exact species of intercourse subsisting between us. I always
treated her with freedom, and sometimes with gayety. I had no motives to
reserve. I was so formed that a creature like her had no power over my
senses. That species of temptation adapted to entice me from the true
path was widely different from the artifices of Betty. There was no
point at which it was possible for her to get possession of my fancy. I
watched her while she practised all her tricks and blandishments, as I
regarded a similar deportment in the _animal salax ignavumque_ who
inhabits the sty. I made efforts to pursue my observations
unembarrassed; but my efforts were made, not to restrain desire, but to
suppress disgust. The difficulty lay, not in withholding my caresses,
but in forbearing to repulse her with rage.

Decorum, indeed, was not outraged, and all limits were not overstepped
at once. Dubious advances were employed; but, when found unavailing,
were displaced by more shameless and direct proceedings. She was too
little versed in human nature to see that her last expedient was always
worse than the preceding; and that, in proportion as she lost sight of
decency, she multiplied the obstacles to her success.

Betty had many enticements in person and air. She was ruddy, smooth, and
plump. To these she added--I must not say what, for it is strange to
what lengths a woman destitute of modesty will sometimes go. But, all
her artifices availing her not at all in the contest with my
insensibilities, she resorted to extremes which it would serve no good
purpose to describe in this audience. They produced not the consequences
she wished, but they produced another which was by no mean