 From the time of his discharge he waited with the utmost
impatience for the hour of breakfast, and when it approached hied him to the
house of his Dulcinea, with a view of excusing himself for the breach of
punctuality he was obliged to commit.
    He was confounded at the air of satisfaction and complacency that manifested
itself in the lady's appearance; but believing it was no other than affectation,
to conceal her inward disquiet and chagrin, he assumed a most dejected look, and
with many expressions of mortification recounted the cursed accident which had
disabled him from reaping the delicious fruits of his expectation. The nymph,
who was not at all subject to the vulgar symptoms of confusion, hearing this
circumstantial detail, fixed her eyes upon the soldier's countenance, and
regarding him attentively for some minutes; »If this declaration (said she) be
an effort of your delicacy, you may spare such ridiculous reserve for the
future. When things are come to a certain pass, such ceremony is superfluous and
disagreeable. But perhaps you remember your good fortune with regret, and
actually wish you had met with that adventure you have been at such pains to
feign, rather than have enjoyed so cheap a conquest. Indeed you was so impatient
to be gone before morning, that you seemed rather tired of your stay, than
sollicitous about my reputation.«
    The trooper, amazed and alarmed at this unexpected address, swore with many
vulgar execrations, that he could prove he was in custody from twelve till six
o'clock in the morning; and that he began to perceive he had been finely flung
by some rascal, who had visited her in his place. He even hinted a suspicion,
that the whole affair had been transacted by her connivance; and became
extremely rough and unmannerly in his expostulations: so that the lady, who had
more of the tygress than of the lamb in her disposition, being exasperated at
the freedom of his behaviour, ordered him down stairs, and (to use the common
phrase) forbad him her house. He accordingly retired, not without many
invectives and threats, which he bawled aloud in his march; while his incensed
patroness, by this time sensible that she had been the dupe of some stratagem,
remained in a state of unspeakable anxiety and mortification. Being blessed,
however, with a great share of penetration, she forthwith set it at work; and,
after some recollection, concluded that the substitute could be no other than
Peregrine, who had either learned the circumstance of the assignation from her
maid, or extracted them from the vanity and indiscretion of the gallant himself
