n in your bed."
"I will, if it does not disturb you." "Disturb me! no, no, don't be afraid
of disturbing me; come, put on a dress and come."

I sat up in bed, thinking that he would go out of the room to let me dress,
but he remained standing in front of me, and his looks frightened me.

I remained sitting on the bed, without stirring. "Well, well, little girl,
you are not getting up?"

"I dare not get up before you, uncle." "Are you silly? What are you afraid
of? Are you not my niece? Come, come, out of bed, little stupid." He said
that in a gentle insinuating voice, and I dared not hesitate any more. I
put one leg out of bed. He followed my movements with the greatest
attention; "Well, well, and that other leg?"

I put out the other leg, blushing all over with shame, and I wanted to take
my petticoat.

But he came near directly and said: "Oh, the lovely little lass, how pretty
she is like this.... You will always be good, will you not?"

"Yes, uncle."

"How pretty you are when you are good. You will always be so? You promise?"

"Yes, uncle."

"Oh, I want to kiss you for that kind promise."

--I held out my cheek to him without resistance, but it was my mouth which
received the kiss. It was followed by a thousand others. One is not of
iron, Monsieur le Cure, and that was how ... I ... lost my innocence.

--What, Veronica, you fell so easily! They say that it is only the first
step which is painful, but it seems hardly to have been painful to you.

--Oh, Monsieur le Cure, we women are full of faults, and we deserve only
eternal damnation.

--I do not say that, Veronica. Certainly in this circumstance all the fault
lies on your seducer, but I should have preferred more struggle on your
part.

--You men are very good with your struggle. To hear you, we never make
enough resistance. Would one not say that the poor women are made of
another paste than you, and that they ought to be harder?

--No, but it is necessary to know how to govern one's passions. That is the
noble, the lofty, the meritorious thing. Resist temptation, everything lies
in that.

[PLATE III: THE LEG. "Oh, the lovely little lass, how pretty she is like
this..."]

[Illustration]

--Everything lies in that, I know it well; but what would you? I had lost
my head entirely like Monsieur Braqueminet. And I did not know what he
wanted, or what he was going to do. I only understood when it was too late.

--Ah, Veronica, you singular woman,