“Now comes my turn,” said the Astrodi; “but I don’t want you to infringe on the rights of my auditor, so come and look round and see where the path lies.  Take that.”

“What am I to do with this slice of lemon?”

“I want you to try whether the place is free from infection, or whether it would be dangerous for you to pay it a visit.”

“Is that a sure method?”

“Infallible; if everything were not right I could not bear the smart.”

“There you are.  How’s that?”

“All right; but don’t deceive me, I want no half measures.  My reputation would be made if I became with child.”

I ask my reader’s leave to draw a veil over some incidents of this truly scandalous orgy, in which the ugly woman taught me some things I did not know before.  At last, more tired than exhausted, I told them to begone, but the Astrodi insisted on finishing up with a bowl of punch.  I agreed, but not wishing to have anything more to do with either of them I dressed myself again.  However, the champagne punch excited them to such an extent that at last they made me share their transports.  The Astrodi placed her friend in such a singular position that the humps were no longer visible, and imagining that I had before me the high priestess of Jove, I paid her a long sacrifice, in which death and resurrection followed one another in succession.  But I felt disgusted with myself, and drew away from their lascivious frenzies, and gave them ten Louis to get rid of them.  The Astrodi fell on her knees, blessed me, thanked me, called me her god; and the Lepi wept and laughed for joy at the same time; and thus for a quarter of an hour I was treated to a scene of an extraordinary kind.

I had them taken home in my carriage, and slept till ten o’clock next morning.  Just as I was going out for a walk Stuard came to my room and told me, with an air of despair, that if I did not give him the means of going away before I left he would throw himself in the Rhine.

“That’s rather tragic,” said I, “but I can find a cure.  I will disburse twenty-five Louis, but it is your wife who must receive them; and the only condition is that she must receive me alone for an hour, and be entirely kind.”

“Sir, we need just that sum; my wife is disposed to receive you; go and talk to her.  I shall not be in till noon.”

I put twenty-five Louis in a pretty little purse, and left my room thinking that the victory was won.  I entered her room and approached her bed respectfully.  When she heard me she sat up in bed without taking the trouble to cover her breast, and before I could wish her good-day she spoke to me as follows: 

“I am ready, sir, to pay with my body for the wretched twenty-five Louis of which my husband is in need.  You can do what you like with me; but remember that in taking advantage of my position to assuage your brutal lust you are the viler of the two, for I only sell myself so cheaply because necessity compels me to do so.  Your baseness is more shameful than mine.  Come on; here I am.”