A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Part 15

The lady would by no means give up her point, though she weaken'd her barrier by it; for in the warmth of the dispute, I could hear two or three corking pins fall out of the curtain to the ground.

Upon my word and honour, Madame, said I,--stretching my arm out of bed by way of a.s.severation. -

(I was going to have added, that I would not have trespa.s.sed against the remotest idea of decorum for the world); -

But the fille de chambre hearing there were words between us, and fearing that hostilities would ensue in course, had crept silently out of her closet, and it being totally dark, had stolen so close to our beds, that she had got herself into the narrow pa.s.sage which separated them, and had advanced so far up as to be in a line betwixt her mistress and me: -

So that when I stretch'd out my hand I caught hold of the fille de chambre's -

Footnotes:

{1} Nosegay.

{2} Hackney coach.

{3} Plate, napkin, knife, fork and spoon.