Having but little to do, I amused myself by writing this at intervals. — The house was usually empty by seven a.m., and full again at night. At eight or nine a.m. the landlady inspected every bedroom, and never came up afterwards. I tailed the willing chambermaid twice every day and once or twice more frequently as opportunity offered, still keeping my rooms in order to get at her more easily. My foot got well, and on a Saturday I left, having had a week or two's good quiet cunt, a coarse affair it was, but I enjoyed her much, and she could have taken double what I gave her. I gave her some gold ornaments when I left, which de-lighted her.

And the Germans, — I envied his powers, for I am pretty sure that he fucked her seven or eight times each day they were there, but they only remained three days.

Chapter XV

At L***s. • An useful keyhole. • A middle aged couple. • An American family. • Eighteen and naked. • Forty in chemise. • Family jars. • The confectioner's shop girl. • Her sister. • Two at a time. • Nervous impotency. • The sponging bath. • Aunt and niece. • At the musuem. • The mutilated statue. • Is it male or female? • Are Americans hairy? • The aunt's bed room. • Coy but willing. • Amy undressing. • A voluptuous night. • Fat, fair, and forty. • A mature cunt. • Wise precautions. • To Paris. • To England. • My abstinence from women.

This tour I became more and more curious about the doings of those in the adjoining bedrooms. I used spy holes whenever I found them, opened others which had been stopped up, and at last even ventured to make some of my own. — But in three rooms out of six, these little peep holes had been made. If I found the bed-room assigned to me had no communication with ad-joining rooms, I changed it on some pretext, and again if not then satisfied. I found that second class hotels gave me greater opportunities for satisfying my curiosity, they being mostly frequented by foreigners, who have not the absurd finical notions about nudity and the necessities of nature, which my own countrymen have; but whom I incline to think are on the average as moral as we are for all that. To use the opportunities advantageously took time and trouble. I had to ascertain what time my neighbours got up or went to bed, or used their rooms. Many a time I have jumped out of bed to peep and saw nothing. At other times when I intended to rise by day-light, and watch (for I was ready for any amount of trouble to see a woman naked, and would have sat up all night to do so), I over-slept myself, and lost my chance. — Yet nothing discouraged me, and I saw a lot of women in different degrees of nudity, saw them piddle, wash their quims, and undress, yet the great bulk tho highly pleasing to me, are not worth writing about.

Travelling for the most part quite alone this time favoured me. — When with a friend, we too often had rooms next each other. — This time I often had strangers on each side of me, and tho that meant noise and disturbance, I preferred it.

The oddest thing, as it seemed to me, was that some-times with holes in doors as big as small peas, the occupants rarely seemed to notice them. — The middle aged sometimes used, but young women rarely. — They were mostly tired or excited, or in a hurry to dress or undress, or to get to food, or move off, or do something, and seemed to notice nothing in the room. — When they had time they almost invariably looked out of the window. This journey was nearly all during warm, light weather.

At the town of L***s in France I had a large room. There were but few travellers. I found not only the entire key-hole of the door dividing mine from the next bed room was free from obstruction, but peep holes were in plenty. — In the morning, awakening, I heard the voices of a male and female, instantly jumped out of bed, and saw a middle aged couple dressing. They were having an altercation, and washing, I think, side by side at the same wash stand, which I could not see. Suddenly the lady stripped off her chemise, put a basin on the floor, and soaped and washed her cunt, talking to the man all the time. She was five and forty quite, had a bum as big as a tub, huge thighs, and lightish brown hair in great quantity, on a cunt which as she squatted, looked enormous. The sausage lips opened till they must have been three inches apart. Great nymphae hung down inside them, and then the red gap looked altogether like a cut in a big bit of meat. — Instantly, — so quickly do comparisons make themselves, I thought of the cunt of my aunt, seen at Hampton Court when I was a boy.

At the same moment appeared by her side a man about fifty-five years old, stout, naked, with a very big prick covered with soapsuds, and there they wrangled close together, she lathering and rubbing her cunt, he his prick. Her cunt got so white and held so much soap, and there was so much hair, that it looked like masses of wool hanging between her thighs. For a minute still squatting, she left off rubbing it, and he holding his big prick in one fist, ceased lathering it whilst they talked. — Then she slopped her cunt and took away the basin. — He went out of sight, and both in half a minute came into sight again with towels, rubbing their privates vigorously, and continued their quarrel. I laughed heartily, but did not care about seeing any more. They were I found from their intonation, Americans. The sight was a comic one.

They must have changed their room or else have left the hotel, for after a midday table d'hote, it being scorchingly hot, I went to my room for a siesta and was just dozing off, when I heard a young female laugh, and my eye was at the keyhole in a second. I saw a nice girl seemingly about eighteen years of age, naked all but shoes and stockings, laughing loudly with an-other big fine woman seemingly about thirty-five, who was divesting herself of clothes, but only stripped to her chemise. All the outer blinds were closed to exclude heat, yet such was the brillancy of the day, that it was quite light in the rooms. They sat down at a table and began to work. The naked one remarked that they had better see to their things than go to sleep. “It gets pretty well as hot as it is down south,” said she. — Every now and then she went to a trunk which was out of my sight, and brought back clothes, so I had good views of her body on all sides, and this went on for an hour.

They talked soon about a marriage, and quarrelled. — “Your father will never give his consent,” said the older. “He shall,” said the younger, “I guess I'll make him.” “Why he's brought you here to get you out of Dick's way.” “I'll bet Dick will follow me.” “There will be a kick up if he does.” “I don't care.” “He's not good enough and look at his beggarly family, he only wants your money.” “He may have it. — He loves me and I love him.” — At length they got to high words, and moved to a part of the room where I could not see nor hear them. — In two or three minutes they came again in sight, and the younger one said. — “If father won't let me marry him, I'll have him without marrying.” “There! I guess it don't matter much to you so long as it's a man, if you are so hot as all that.” “You needn't talk about being hot, you let ** ** do it to you when you were much younger than I am.” “It's a lie.” “You did, and two years after, mother caught * * ** in bed with ****” “It's a damned lie,” shrieked out the other whom I heard, but then could not see. “I've heard mother say so more than once, and * * * said so before she died. “I won't stop with you, or travel any longer with you, I'll go back,” and the elder began to bellow. They both talked together, it was quite a jangle, and they moved. “Don't make that noise, some one is in the next room perhaps,” and naked, the younger came towards my door and listened. — I covered the key hole with a coat, but she must, I think, have looked there. Their voices dropped soon after, a door banged, and I fancied one was alone.