the hour of eleven at night
When the articles of the treaty had been fully agreed on , the stipulated payments duly secured , and nothing now remained but the execution of the main point , which centered in the surrender of my person up to his free disposal and use , Mrs. Cole managed her objections , especially to his lodgings , and insinuations so nicely , that it became his own mere notion and urgent request , that this copy of a wedding should be finished at her house : `` At first , indeed , she did not care , not she , to have such doings in it ... she would not for a thousand pounds have any of the servants or apprentices know it ... her precious good name would be gone for ever ... , '' with the like excuses . However , on superior objections to all other expedients , whilst she took care to start none but those which were most liable to them it came round at last to the necessity of her obliging ' him in that conveniency , and of doing a little more where she had already done so much . The night then was fixed , with all possible respect to the eagerness of his impatience , and in the mean time Mrs. Cole had omitted no instructions , nor even neglected any preparation , that might enable me to come off with honour , in regard to the appearance of my virginity , except that , favoured as I was by nature with all the narrowness of stricture in that part requisite to conduct my designs , I had no occasion to borrow those auxiliaries of art that create a momentary one , easily discovered by the test of a warm bath ; and as to the usual sanguinary symptoms of defloration , which , if not always , are generally attendants on it , Mrs. Cole had made me the mistress of an invention of her own , which could hardly miss its effect , and of which more in its place . Every thing then being disposed and fixed for Mr. Norbert 's reception , he was , at the hour of eleven at night , with all the mysteries of silence and secrecy , let in by Mrs. Cole herself , and introduced into her bedchamber , where , in an old-fashioned bed of her 's , I lay , fully undressed , and panting , if not with the fears of a real maid , at least with those perhaps greater of a dissembled one which gave me an air of confusion and bashfulness that maiden-modesty had all the honour of , and was indeed scarce distinguishable from it , even by less partial eyes than those of my lover : so let me call him , for I ever thought the term `` cully '' too cruel a reproach to the men , for their abused weakness for us . As soon as Mrs. Cole , after the old gossipery , on these occasions , used to young women abandoned for the first time to the will of man , had left us alone in her room , which , by the bye was well lighted up , at his previous desire , that seemed to bode a stricter examination than he afterwards made , Mr. Norbert , still dressed , sprung towards the bed , where I got my head under the clothes , and defended them a good while before he could even get at my lips , to kiss them : so true it is , that a false virtue , on this occasion , even makes & greater rout and resistance than a true one . From thence he descended to my breasts , the feel I disputed tooth and nail with him till tired with my resistance , and thinking probable to give a better account to me , he hurried his clothes off in an instant , and came into bed . Mean while by the glimpse I stole of him , I could easily discover a person far from promising any such doughty performances as the storming of maidenheads generally requires , and whose flimsy consumptive texture gave him more the air of an invalid that was pressed , than of a volunteer , on such hot service .