“Then I have done wrong?”

“No, no! I loved you too much, too passionately, to proceed otherwise.”

I slipped off her gown, and then she sat on my knee clad only in her chemise.

“You wish to know what is virginity,” I said, losing all control of myself. “Well, I wall tell you; but draw near-nearer still-your lips on mine.”

I pressed her to my breast; she clasped her arms round my neck, sighing and panting with amorous excitement.

“Do you feel my hand?” I asked.

“Oh, yes!” said she, with a shiver through her whole frame.

“And my finger, do you feel it too?”

“Yes… Yes!…”

“I am now touching what they call the maidenhead. When once this is broken through you cease to be a virgin, and you become a woman. Well, what I wish is to caress you only in such a way that you shall keep that maidenhead as long as possible. Do you understand?”

Directly my finger was fixed there, Violette gave no other answer than by caressing me fondly and muttering passionate words. Then she entwined her body round mine, uttered inarticulate exclamations, sighed, and suddenly she loosened her hold of me; her head fell back, and she lay as if in a swoon. I undressed rapidly, tore off her chemise, and stretched her against me in the bed.

She soon recovered and said:

“Oh, I am dead!”

“Dead!” I cried. “You dead! Just as if you said I was dead. Oh, no! on the contrary, we are beginning to live.” And I covered her with kisses which made her writhe as if they had been so many bites. Then she began in her turn to bite me with little passionate cries. Each time our lips met there was a pause, full of voluptuous pleasure.

Suddenly she gave a cry of astonishment, and seized with both hands the unknown object which had caused her surprise, as if the veil were torn asunder.

“I understand,” said she, “it is with this-But it is quite impossible.”