Ravished with this confession, he now deemed
himself on the brink of reaping the delicious fruits of his art
and assiduity; and the morning being already pretty far advanced,
assented with rapture to the first proposal she made of retiring
to her lodgings. The blinds of the chariot being pulled up, he
took advantage of the favourable situation of her thoughts; and,
on pretence of being whimsical, in consequence of the wine he had
swallowed, clasped her in his arms, and imprinted a thousand kisses
on her pouting lips, a freedom which she pardoned as the privilege
of intoxication. While he thus indulged himself with impunity, the
carriage halted, and Pipes opening the door, his master handed her
into the passage, before she perceived that it was not her uncle's
house at which they had alighted.
Alarmed at this discovery, she, with some confusion, desired
to know his reason for conducting her to a strange place at these
hours. But he made no reply, until he had led her into an apartment,
when he gave her to understand, that, as her uncle's family must
be disturbed by her going thither so late in the night, and the
streets near Temple-bar were infested by a multitude of robbers and
cut-throats, he had ordered his coachman to halt at this house, which
was kept by a relation of his, a mighty good sort of a gentlewoman,
who would be proud of an opportunity to accommodate a person for
whom he was known to entertain such tenderness and esteem.
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