I offered my assistance to aid her in undressing, but this she would by no means allow. She would see me fairly in bed before she removed a single particle of her own attire. I reminded her that such conduct upon my part would be quite out of order and begged she would consider how very ungallant it would appear in me to receive a lady in bed, but my arguments were all in vain and she began with her own fair hands to remove my cravat, etc. Finding her so fully determined I ceased to expostulate, and quickly divesting myself of my clothes, lay down naked upon the bed and prepared to watch the delightful spectacle of her disrobing. But little did I anticipate the intellectual as well as sensual entertainment in store for me. For I was now to learn that the charming girl had conceived the humorous fancy of pretending that she was alone! Slipping off her bodice and releasing a pair of large and finely moulded breasts from her corset, she threw herself backwards upon a low divan, opened her legs, and picking up her petticoats, seized a long bolster and thrusting it between her thighs and clasping it in her naked arms proceeded with many gasps and sighs and tumultuous heavings of her bottom to go through the whole pantomime of love with such extraordinary fervour and fidelity to nature that at last the very bolster seemed to be alive and I could have found it in my heart to drive a knife into the horsehair bowels of my supplanter!
However, I managed to remember that I should very soon find myself in the position now occupied by the happy bolster and so determined to wait and see the pretty comedy to its end.
Delia now pushed away her imaginary lover and moved from the sofa to her looking-glass. Here she let down her masses of wavy brown hair, threw off her stays, slipped her chemise to the floor and stood for a moment seemingly spellbound at the reflection of her own beauty!
At length her lips parted and by straining my ears I could just catch the words she uttered:
"Ah, Heavens, what an ill-assorted world is this! Here am I, poor lonely forsaken Delia, longing, craving, dying for a lusty man. Within hail are hundreds, nay thousands, of such men not one of whom but would leap from his bed and fly to me as if the Devil were after him could he but know that I stand here naked, my fingers itching, my vulva throbbing, and my tongue vainly twisting this way and that to enclose a glorious, standing pizzle in their embrace! That beautiful singer, now! If I only had him here! Does he know the pleasure of a girl's fresh red mouth upon his sugar-stick? I'll go bail he knows it not. And yet mine is fresh and red, and the lips are full and ripe and made for amorous clinging.
With what rapture would they fasten upon his tool and suck it in to meet the onslaught of my tongue, which should curl its whole length about the stiffening column nor rest until it had drawn from him a torrent of love's delicious nectar! But a few minutes to repose and then I would lock my arms around his neck and fingering his member so deftly that it could not choose but stand again, would clasp him naked to my naked breasts and pray him to hitter me till one or the other should cry mercy! All this and a thousand other sweet and pleasant things would I do, were my dear love but with me now!"
The reader may imagine with what feelings I had listened to this impassioned harangue. But my powers of self-restraint were at last exhausted and leaping from the bed I rushed upon the naked girl and covered her with passionate kisses from head to foot. Waves of lascivious delight coursed up and down her body and as I stood before her, breathless from my late exertions, she sank to her knees, and after looking up into my face with a gaze of speechless love and longing, softly passed her tongue over the nut of my yard and then pushing it slowly and lovingly between her lips, began to suck it with incredible ardour and enjoyment.
I was just beginning to revel in the exquisite sensations produced by the contact of Delia's mouth and tongue and wondering how long I could stave off the crisis which was already threatening to arrive, when a thundering double knocking at the street door broke the silence of night with an echoing sound that seemed sufficient to shake every house in that retired row to its foundation; and Delia, starting from my arms, leapt into the middle of the room.
"Good God!" I exclaimed, "what can this mean? surely 'tis an alarm of fire."
"Worse, worse!" she replied, "unfortunate wretch that I am! Too well I know the meaning of these sounds. It's my old tyrant, B-, returned a week before his time; but let him come; I'll brave it all; he can but turn me out of doors, and you, my dear, will not forsake me."
With a few hasty words I succeeded in convincing her of the folly of such conduct; and taking my clothes upon my arm urged her to endeavour to think of some place of concealment from which I could at a convenient moment escape undiscovered from the house. The knocking was now renewed more furiously than before, mingled with the violent ringing of the bell in such a manner as to bespeak plainly the wild impatience of the operator.
She seized my arm and led me in silence across the landing place; and having descended a couple of steps opened the door of a small chamber, and having kissed me whispered, "For my sake be cautious," she closed the door and departed, leaving me in a state of nudity and in utter darkness. In a few moments I heard her returning footsteps, mingled with those of a man, who, in no very gentle terms, was expressing his discontent at having been kept so long waiting in the street, which she attributed to her having been in her first sleep. At length they entered the chamber I had so recently quitted under such very disastrous circumstances, and the door being closed I was at once convinced from the very faint murmurs that met my ear, notwithstanding he was still speaking rather loudly, that I might without danger of being overheard venture to put on my clothes; in which attempt I had entirely succeeded, with the exception of my boots, and was cautiously rising for the purpose of seeking the door in order to make good my retreat when a ray of light suddenly illumined the apartment and I felt the grasp of what appeared to be the long bony fingers of a skeleton hand upon my shoulders.
On turning round to ascertain the cause of my alarm, I discovered that I had been unconsciously sitting upon what is termed by brokers a stump bedstead, upon which an aged woman was at the time sleeping, who having been disturbed by my movements had in the impulse of her momentary terror grasped my shoulder with one hand and drawn back a thick curtain which covered the window with the other. This accounted for the sudden ray of light, for the moon was shining brilliantly and rendered every object in that small chamber distinctly visible.
Her head was graced by a dirty flannel nightcap tied under the chin; her eyes, which were strained to their utmost extent, were fixed upon my face; they were of that description vulgarly called "velvet-bound," being edged with a rich crimson border, and a stream of rheum ran gently down a deep gutterlike wrinkle formed on each side of her nose, which was long, skinny, and hooked; while from her expanded nostrils issued a current of a dark mahogany colour, doubtless the effects of the quantities of snuff she was in the habit of taking; a pair of lengthy discoloured fangs protruded from her upper jaw, forming a barrier to keep the under lip from falling inwards; a profusion of long, grey hair shaded her withered shoulders; and a pair of breasts, resembling nothing earthly so much as a couple of dingy wash-leather saddle bags, with a stone in the bottom of each to keep them pendant, rested upon the well-worn counterpane. This delicate creature continued to gaze upon me for some time without uttering a sentence, her hands resting on my shoulders, and as she advanced her hideous countenance nearer to my own I experienced a feeling of suffocation from the exhalations of her breath, perfumed as it was with the combined fragrance of gin, onions, and tobacco.