#354744 - Having assured their confreres they had conducted themselves with all possible decency and modesty, that they might have nothing to be reproached for, and that now, perfectly calm, they were in a fit state to listen, Messieurs gave Duclos the signal to proceed and she did so in the following terms: I sincerely regret Monsieur de Curval's precipitate haste to relieve his needs, said that superb creature, for I had two pregnant-woman stories to tell him, and they would perhaps have afforded him some real pleasure. Why, whatever infamy you wish to propose, even were it to dismember Nature and unhinge the universe. And the young lady, blushing to the ears with shame, for she had been forewarned of nothing, was at a loss to know what tack to take.