Myriam was sobbing these words. She tore off the top of Ghislaine's dress, baring her pointed breasts, fondling them with impotent rage…
«Your fine, your pure body, I want you to become what I am..!»
She panted with exasperation. Meanwhile Jerome who was past listening, couldn't take his eyes from the magnificent body wriggling with fear and shame within arm's reach… He was going to get that girl Ghislaine, the pure daughter of a man whose trade it was to sell and buy other women… It was a divine piece of mischief… He was instrumental to Fate's designs. He would gratify his appetite, he would revenge Myriam, he would revenge himself on the man who had been his enemy in trade as well as in love.
Intoxicated with joy, he flattened on top of Ghislaine. Myriam stopped him:
«Wait! I want her to know everything, I want her to know it's not out of jealousy or vice I throw her to you, I want her to understand it's my revenge on her father…»
She pointed at the ceiling:
«Your father is above… He can see you… And he knows he's responsible for all this..!»
Then she told Ghislaine everything… who her father was, what kind of life he lived, what his trade was, how he used his fortune…
Ghislaine had closed her eyes and was silently crying.
Kozincko was howling with pain and he hammered vainly at the door… he was caught. He would have to live it down to the end…
«Do you understand now… now… cried Myriam… I wanted some happiness, some love just a little… And I've only met with debauch and brutish desires… They have profited by my youth, be my beauty… Your father is paying for it now in your body my Ghislaine, my sweet pure little Ghislaine.
She shook her frail fist at the ceiling:
Now look, look hard..!»
She weighed on Ghislaine's shoulders:
«Take her, Jerome, take her… Hurt her!»
Jerome was white with pent up desire. He stood naked, powerful and impudent as a god.
Slowly he opened up Ghislaine's thighs. He laid his hands on her small heaving belly, wrenched the flimsy triangle that protected her sex. He looked dazedly at this lovely cunt. Then he pushed his prick against her crack, it was burning and quivering. Ghislaine tried to free herself, to escape… too late! Jerome pierced in, pushing it in with a vengeance. She arched back, her whole body thrilled under the shove, a raucous cry fused under her gag. Then she fell back as broken puppet, while Jerome fucked away for dear life.
A frightful roar of pain had come from the room above. Myriam listened very white about the lips. Then she kissed her victim in the lids:
«Forgive me Ghislaine, I didn't know a revenge could hurt so much!..
«Adieu!.. She ran away.»
— Dawn was already touching the woods with silver lights. Fantastic shadows receded in to the brakes.
On the lake, the last stars flickered out. Somewhere birds were waking. In that serene scenery a light shape wandered… was it a fairy? was it Cinderella hurrying back to her cottage?
The shadow ran, stopped, and fled like a will o' the wisp.
Myriam was crying.
«Why did I do such a thing..? Why..? Poor Ghislaine… Poor darling… Her revenge had been to much to bear. She understood how filthy and brutish it had been.»
Love didn't exist, nor beauty… There was nothing left to hope for, to live for…
Myriam was sobbing. She was obsessed by her craving for purity. She longed to wash away all stains on her body and soul… She was running to the lake… nothing any longer mattered… utterly hopeless she ran to end her life where her miseries had started on a fine sunny afternoon.
She had almost reached the bank when she heard somebody running, running after her. It was a man. Was it Kozincko? she shuddered. She tried to escape, he was too quick for her.
It was Freddy.
«So this is the way you keep your promises? If I hadn't spotted you, you'd be far by now!»
Myriam was silent. Freddy seized her hands.
«I suppose I'll have to help myself..?»
Myriam freed herself, tried to flee. He caught her in two strides.
«You bitch! You won't get Me! You owe me something and you'll pay! He tumbled her on the moth, pushed three fingers inside her and began whipping it up. She was struggling, scratching. With his other hand he slapped her face masterfully.
«I'll teach you how I deal with such bitches as your likes!»
I told you I'd fuck you and I'll do it. You're going to feel something; I'll make it come out of your mouth you silly cunt!
Myriam yielded: what did it matter now?.. He was stroking her breasts and whispered thickly:
«You're not a virgin, still it must be god…»
He slipped the tip of it in between her lips:
God! What a warm cunt, I don't wonder Kozincko is crazy on you.
He rammed it up the whole way up with a groan of pleasure, it was so brutal it felt as if something had given way in her womb, she wailed.
«It's less comfortable than a bed but it makes a lovely country scene! He was panting on top of her moving in and out as fast as he could. Suddenly in spite of herself Myriam felt the surge of pleasure heaving her up. She arched her loins, threw her legs up to feel him coming deeper:
«You little bitch! you like it, don't you! don't you!»
He was fucking at her with all his might. When the… psychological moment came she instinctively recoiled. But he clung to her and sneered:
«No my dear! With me it's everything or nothing, and God! I'd be sorry not to shoot it all off into your lovely twat..!»
— She fled as soon as he released her, he laughed:
«I wish you a pleasant journey, be ware of strangers…»
— Myriam cried long on the water's edge. She cried over her spoiled youth, her useless beauty, on her dreams, on men's vileness, on her own wickedness.
Then she rose in her Cinderella dress, and walked into the icy waters. She walked as in a dream, entranced. Her dress floated about her as an opalescent blossom sinking in to the glancing mirror of the lake as the sun rose.
Love's frail Cinderella would die to find again peace and purity.
EPILOGUE
No! Myriam didn't die. A fairy appeared. It was Ghislaine, followed by Jerome.
Jerome was but a modern pirate but when the circumstances required it he was a man. He had freed Ghislaine, and she had taken him along…
Myriam was rescued.
— When both girls were alone together, Ghislaine implored:
«Please forgive me everything that hurt you. Please forget!»
The mystery of feminine souls! Ghislaine felt responsible for her father's, for all the other men's wrongs.
Myriam was crying with happiness.
Jerome had vanished.
Kozincko went away too. How he had escaped from the observatory. What had he done afterwards? Nobody ever knew what happened on that night…
Mrs. Cornavin kept her mouth shut. A few weeks later she left with her daughters and one never heard of them again.
