When the play was over, M——­ F——­ asked me if I would allow him to call on me.  I embraced him in reply.  His servant came in, and said that he could not find a coach; and I, feeling rather surprised that he had not brought his carriage, offered him the use of mine, telling my man to get me a sedan-chair.

“I accept your kind offer,” said he, “on the condition that you allow me to occupy the chair.”

I consented to this arrangement, and took the mother and the two daughters with me in the carriage.

On the way, Madame M——­ F——­ was very polite, gently blaming her husband for the rudeness of which I had to complain.  I said that I would avenge myself by paying an assiduous court to him in the future; but she pierced me to the heart by saying that they were on the point of departing.  “We wanted to go on the day after next,” she said, “and to-morrow we shall have to leave our present rooms to their new occupants.  A matter of business which my husband was not able to conclude will oblige us to stay for another week, and to-morrow we shall have the double task of moving and finding new apartments.”

“Then you have not yet got new rooms?”

“No, but my husband says he is certain to find some to-morrow morning.”

“Furnished, I suppose, for as you intend to leave you will be selling, your furniture.”

“Yes, and we shall have to pay the expenses of carriage to the buyer.”

On hearing that M. M——­ F——­ was sure of finding lodgings, I was precluded from offering to accommodate them in my own house, as the lady might think that I only made the offer because I was sure it would not be accepted.

When we got to the door of their house we alighted, and the mother begged me to come in.  She and her husband slept on the second floor, and the two girls on the third.  Everything was upside down, and as Madame M——­ F——­ had something to say to the landlady she asked me to go up with her daughters.  It was cold, and the room we entered had no fire in it.  The sister went into the room adjoining and I stayed with Sara, and all of a sudden I clasped her to my breast, and feeling that her desires were as ardent as mine I fell with her on to a sofa where we mingled our beings in all the delights of voluptuous ardours.  But this happiness was short lived; scarcely was the work achieved when we heard a footstep on the stair.  It was the father.

If M——­ F——­ had had any eyes he must have found us out, for my face bore the marks of agitation, the nature of which it was easy to divine.  We exchanged a few brief compliments; I shook his hand and disappeared.  I was in such a state of excitement when I got home that I made up my mind to leave England and to follow Sara to Switzerland.  In the night I formed my plans, and resolved to offer the family my house during the time they stayed in England, and if necessary to force them to accept my offer.

In the morning I hastened to call on M——­ F——­, and found him on his doorstep.