after having agreed on this notable
experience, to one of those hedge accommodations for foot passengers,
at the door of which stood an old crazy beldam, who seeing us trudge by,
invited us to lodge there. Glad of any cover, we went in, and my fellow
traveller, taking all upon him, called for what the house afforded, and
we supped together as man and wife; which, considering our figures and
ages, could not have passed on any one but such as any thing could
pass on. But when bed-time came on, we had neither of us the courage
to contradict our first account of ourselves; and what was extremely
pleasant, the young lad seemed as perplexed as I was how to evade lying
together, which was so natural for the state we had pretended to. Whilst
we were in this quandary, the landlady takes the candles, and lights
us to our apartment, through a long yard, at the end of which it stood,
separate from the body of the house. Thus we suffered ourselves to be
conducted, without saying a word in opposition to it; and there, in a
wretched room, with a bed answerable, we were left to pass the night
together, as a thing quite of course. For my part, I was so incredibly
innocent, as not even to think much more harm of going into bed with the
young man, than with one of our dairy wenches; nor had he, perhaps, any
other notions than those of innocence, till such a fair occasion put
them into his head.

"Before either of us undressed, however, he put out the candle; and the
bitterness of the weather made it a kind of necessity for me to go into
bed: slipping then my clothes off, I crept under the bedclothes, where
I found the young stripling already nestled, and the touch of his warm
flesh rather pleased than alarmed me. I was indeed too much disturbed
with the novelty of my condition to be able to sleep; but then I had
not the least thought of harm. But oh! how powerful are the instincts
of nature! how little is there wanting to set them in action! The young
man, sliding his arm under my body, drew me gently towards him, as if
to keep himself and me warmer; and the heat I felt from joining our
breasts, kindled another that I had hitherto never felt, and was,
even then, a stranger to the nature of. Emboldened, I suppose, by my
easiness, he ventured to kiss me, and I insensibly returned it; without
knowing the consequence of returning it: for, on this encouragement, he
slipped his hand all down from my breast to that part of me where the
sense of