She didn''t draw away until I made to lie upon the bed and pull her with me. Then she said: ''Oh, we cannot! What if Mrs Lethaby should come?''
''She won''t. She is leaving me, as a kind of punishment.'' I touched her knee, and then her thigh, through the layers of her skirts.
''We cannot. . .'' she said again; but this time, her voice was fainter. And when I tugged at her frock and said, ''Come on, take this off - or shall I tear the buttons?'' she gave a drunken sort of laugh: ''You shall do no such thing! Help me nicely, now.''
Naked she was very thin, and strangely coloured: flaming crimson at the cheeks, a coarser red from her elbows to her
fingertips, and palely white - almost bluish-white - on her torso, upper arms, and thighs. The hair between her legs - you can never guess at that kind of thing in advance - was quite ginger. When I dipped my lips to it, she gave a squeal: ''Oh! What a thing to do!'' But then, after a moment, she held my head and pressed it. She didn''t seem to be at all sorry about my swollen nose, then. She only said: ''Oh, turn around, turn around quick, that I might do it to you!''
After that, I pulled the counterpane over us, and we drank more champagne, taking turns to sip from the bottle. I put my hand upon her. I said: ''Did you used to frig yourself in the reformat''ry?'' She gave me a slap, saying, ''Oh, you are as bad as them downstairs! I nearly died!'' She pushed the blanket back, and squinted at her quim. ''To think of me with a cock! What an idea!''