For this purpose he returned to Bath that very day, and was received as usual by our modest matron, with apparent affection, to whom he paid connubial adoration, and for whose person he more than ever panted. But our heroine, as usual, declined the amorous conflict, alleging her ill health, and enforced a respite by the promise of future obedience. Having spent the day in mutual tenderness, the fond couple now retired, "each to their downy couch," but not before the husband declared his intention of going the next morning again to his country residence, where he said he had engaged to meet some of his tenants upon special business.

The house which this fond couple occupied in Bath was at the corner of a street, and had two doors, besides a third which led through a stable. Of this door Mr. Ayrtoun always kept a key, as he very frequently rode out and in and put up his horse without trouble. It was a whim, not to be sure very common among men of large fortune, but as such it pleased him, and he indulged his humour.

In the morning early, and after a night of very indifferent rest, he arose, took his horse as usual, and rode about a mile towards his country seat, when pretending some occasion to return he stopped at a small inn, and leaving his palfrey there, walked back without observation. It was still little more than the gray dawn, when letting himself in at the second door, of which he had also secured the key, he ascended softly by a back staircase to the door of his wife's apartment, which, through a delicate apprehension of fire, was never more than shut by the common slip bolt. He listened attentively, and finding all profoundly silent stole gently under the bed, and there became a stationary of little more than curiosity. Had he been discovered, the plan was to affect an amorous impatience, and to force his gentle wife into a compliance with his wishes; but having escaped detection, he lay perdu as a post, and waited the event with as much patience as his philosophy could afford him.