Anne Lister: Journal Entry

Kissing and pressing her as usual, she put the blind down . . . Mrs Priestley came at four. I had jumped in time and was standing by the fire, but Ann [Walker] looked red and I pale, and Mrs P must see we were not particularly expecting or desiring company. She looked vexed, jealous and annoyed and asked (in bitter satire) if I had [been] where I was ever since she left me there. ‘No’, said I, ‘I only ought to have been’ . . . I laughed and said I really did not intend doing so again. ‘Yes’, she replied angrily, ‘you will do the same the very next time the temptation occurs’. ‘Plain proof’, thought I, ‘of what you think and that you smoke [suspect] a little’. I parried all with good humour saying that I really must stay all night. She only staid [stayed] a few minutes and went off in a suppressed rage today . . . Miss W [Ann Walker] laughed and said we were well matched. We soon got to kissing again on the sofa . . . She never offered the least resistance . . . When dusk, she asked . . . ‘If you never had any attachment, who taught you to kiss?’ I laughed and said how nicely that was said, then answered that nature taught me. I could have replied, ‘And who taught you?’