ed myself in such a manner as to hide
them from the view of my young friend, whom I led into the recess of a
window. But I had not been able to prevent C---- C---- from seeing in a
looking-glass the position of the two impudent wretches, and her face was
suffused with blushes; I, however, spoke to her quietly of indifferent
things, and recovering her composure she answered me, speaking of her
gloves, which she was folding on the pier-table. After his brutal
exploit, P---- C---- came impudently to me and embraced me; his dissolute
companion, imitating his example, kissed my young friend, saying she was
certain that she had seen nothing. C---- C---- answered modestly that she
did not know what she could have seen, but the look she cast towards me
made me understand all she felt. If the reader has any knowledge of the
human heart, he must guess what my feelings were. How was it possible to
endure such a scene going on in the presence of an innocent girl whom I
adored, when I had to fight hard myself with my own burning desires so as
not to abuse her innocence! I was on a bed of thorns! Anger and
indignation, restrained by the reserve I was compelled to adopt for fear
of losing the object of my ardent love, made me tremble all over. The
inventors of hell would not have failed to place that suffering among its
torments, if they had known it. The lustful P---- C---- had thought of
giving me a great proof of his friendship by the disgusting action he had
been guilty of, and he had reckoned as nothing the dishonour of his
mistress, and the delicacy of his sister whom he had thus exposed to
prostitution. I do not know how I contrived not to strangle him. The next
day, when he called on me, I overwhelmed him with the most bitter
reproaches, and he tried to excuse himself by saying that he never would
have acted in that manner if he had not felt satisfied that I had already
treated his sister in the tete-a-tete in the same way that he treated his
mistress before us.

My love for C---- C---- became every instant more intense, and I had made
up my mind to undertake everything necessary to save her from the fearful
position in which her unworthy brother might throw her by selling her for
his own profit to some man less scrupulous than I was. It seemed to me
urgent. What a disgusting state of things! What an unheard-of species of
seduction! What a strange way to gain my friendship! And I found myself
under the dire necessity of dissemb