Page:Horrid Mysteries Volume 3.djvu/129

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THE HORRID MYSTERIES.
123

that troop of amiable country girls who, during the short time of our stay with them, never lost sight of us. These remarks had a powerful influence on my subsequent resolutions. All of us gentlemen were greater or lesser sinners, and it afforded us the highest pleasure to exchange the coquetry and art of our ladies with the sensible and open simplicity of those innocent children of nature. Joy and cheerful mirth animated, therefore, every one of us; and we found many little innocent means of gratifying our glowing humour, and the demands of a heated blood, without injuring the virtue of those innocent rustics. Dancing and songs, little feasts and processions, fire-works and comedies, followed each other in a pleasing succession, were always different in their nature, and, nevertheless, only parts of a well arranged whole.

Even the Count began to cheer up a little, yet without being able to take his usual share in these amusements. Carolinewas