,--"Are you returned again, kind angel," said I, "to bless a
wretch who can only be happy in adoring you? Can it be, that you, who
have so many advantages over me, should quit all the pleasures that
nature has formed you for, and all your friends and relations, to take
an asylum in my arms? But I here make you a tender of all I am able
to bestow--my love and constancy."--"Come, come," says she, "no more
raptures; I find you are a worthier man than I thought I had reason
to take you for, and I beg your pardon for my distrust whilst I was
ignorant of your imperfections; but now I verily believe all you have
said is true; and I promise you, as you have seemed so much to delight
in me, I will never quit you till death, or other as fatal accident
shall part us. But we will now, if you choose, go home; for I know you
have been some time uneasy in this gloom, though agreeable to me: for,
giving my eyes the pleasure of looking eagerly on you, it conceals my
blushes from your sight."

In this manner, exchanging mutual endearments and soft speeches, hand
in hand, we arrived at the grotto; where we that night consummated our
nuptials, without farther ceremony than mutual solemn engagements to
each other; which are, in truth, the essence of marriage, and all that
was there and then in our power.

CHAPTER XVI.

The author's disappointment at first going to bed with his
new wife--Some strange circumstances relating thereto--She
resolves several questions he asks her, and clears up his
fears as to the voices--A description of swangeans.

Every calm is succeeded by a storm, as is every storm by its calm; for,
after supper, in order to give my bride the opportunity of undressing
alone, which I thought might be most agreeable the first night, I
withdrew into the antechamber till I thought she was laid; and then,
having first disposed of my lamp, I moved softly towards her, and
stepped into bed too; when, on my nearer approach to her, I imagined she
had her clothes on. This struck a thorough damp over me; and asking her
the reason of it, not being able to touch the least bit of her flesh
but her face and hands, she burst out a-laugh-ing; and, running her hand
along my naked side, soon perceived the difference she before had made
such doubt of between herself and me. Upon which she fairly told me,
that neither she, nor any person she had ever seen before, had any
other covering than what they were born with, a