he is now, I have no doubt, making the best of his way on board his ship, and will be beating down channel in a few hours, spite of the gale. But suppose he should not sail, should return, he cannot get in here tonight; the people of the house are gone to bed, and I have bolted and barred the front door.'
Poor Mrs Fraser sat up in the bed and regarded me attentively, 'To look at you, one would think you a child,' she said, 'but you talk like a man!'
'I am so much a man, my dear Mrs Fraser, that I would have poignarded that scoundrel just now, had I been near him; but as I cannot wound his body, I am here to wound his honour, if indeed he has any to lose. Take me in your arms, dearest girl, and I will soon show you what he ought to have done, and what blisses you have lost by marrying such as him.'
I sprang into the bed and clasped her in my arms; she leant her head on my shoulder and sobbed. At that moment, if the redoubtable Captain Fraser had appeared armed to the teeth, I believe I could have given him battle and conquered. God! how I loved, how I pitied that woman — 'I hope,' I said, 'he has not done you any 'irretrievable injury'.'
'He ruptured me the first night,' she sobbed out, 'and since then I have endured nothing but torment. Ah! how I loved him, and what a fond wife I could have been!'
'You break my heart,' said I. 'I was going to make the offer of my person to you, but by God, you disarm me, I am wretched.'
'Sweetest, sweetest boy,' she said, 'I love him no longer, come to my arms and teach me, though you be so young, what a wife ought to know. I abandon myself to your dear embrace, and God forgive me if I am wrong, but I have been cruelly victimised by him who ought to have been my protector.'
I embraced my fair creature with rapture, and was soon in possession of her hitherto despised maidenhead.
'I care not for this pain, darling boy,' she said, 'it is a natural legitimate pain, and I only love you for inflicting it, but before you begin again do look and see how that brute has injured me!' and she knelt up, jutting out her heavenly bottom, showed me her poor little anus all inflamed, distended and torn, bleeding, absolutely bleeding. 'It was cruel of him, was it not?' she said, 'to treat me so barbarously?'
'Poor darling!' I exclaimed. 'It is most shameful indeed, poor dear love!'
Then suffering her to guide my stiffened prick to the right entrance, I and she were soon again lost in bliss. Morning and Mary found us locked in each other's arms.
Dear little Mary, what a reproachful glance she cast upon me. But I quieted her with a gesture, and drawing her towards me, whispered, 'I could do no less, my angel; go, take a sovereign out of my purse, you will find it on the dressing-table, and say nothing of what you have seen.' She kissed me passionately and withdrew.
Then I turned to the pretty creature by my side, and casting my arms around her neck, wooed her to a matutinal embrace. She responded instantly, and mounting over me, took the active part, while I toyed with her full and enchanting breasts. When this was over, we mutually compared notes as to our future proceedings. She told me that she could not endure that we should part when the ship sailed, in which my passage was taken, and that she had thought of a plan by which we should still be together. Captain Fraser had kept her very short of money, and as he was bound to Madras, Singapore and China, he might not be back for years. She did not care about returning to her home, as her family had always treated her harshly. She, therefore, intended to ask Captain A-l, of the Reliance, to take her as stewardess, 'and then you know, dearest boy, you can slip into my cabin sometimes'. I thanked her with a kiss, and approved of her plan. I offered her ten pounds in case she should not have enough money to pay her lodging bill, but she declined it, saying she had enough by her to meet that charge, and had also a pretty good outfit.
So that matter settled, I bid her goodbye for the present, and went to my own room to dress.
At breakfast I was abstracted and taciturn, spite of the blandishments of the young ladies, for I was anxious to go down to the Sallyport, and find out if Captain Fraser had sailed. So making some excuse about seeing if Messrs Grindley amp; Co. had sent my luggage from London, I put on my hat and made the best of my way to the Hard. Here I soon learnt that Captain Fraser had come down there at midnight, and to the great astonishment of the few watermen that yet lingered in hope of a fare, had gone on board; that the Azincour had immediately weighed anchor, and stood out to sea in the teeth of the remonstrances of the pilot and the manifest discontent of the crew.
I returned quite elated with the news, and sent a little pencil note up to Mrs Fraser. I now proposed a walk to the young ladies. Lucy and Miss N-l accepted my escort, but the others, having some letters to write, stayed at home.
I made myself as agreeable as I could, and proposed that we should go over to Ryde in the steamer, see what we could of the Isle of Wight, lunch there, and get back to Southsea in time to dress for our six o'clock dinner. The girls clapped their hands and declared that would be capital fun, and away we went. It was a fine day, though the wind blew a hard gale from the sou'-sou'-west, which did not incommode me in the least, and only showed off to advantage the fine shape of my companions, for there were no odious crinolines in those days.
As soon as we landed at Ryde we made the best of our way out of that ugly town, with its prim red-brick houses, and soon found ourselves scrambling amidst the woods in the neighbourhood.
The girls got very skittish, climbing trees, and playing all sorts of pranks, giving me abundance of opportunities of seeing all their beauties, which were of the most recherche description.
Lucy, catching me peeping, made great pretence of concealing what it was evident she meant to show, exclaiming, 'Now! what are you looking at, naughty boy! for shame! Louisa, take care! you are showing your legs tremendously; the young rogue will see you, too, I declare,' etc.
All this seemed to me very funny, so I thought I would play them a trick. I proposed that we should have a game of hide and seek, and I offered to go and hide; this was agreed to, and they came scrambling out of the trees.
'Now,' I said, 'hide your eyes and don't stir till I cry whoop!' I dashed off as if intending to go some distance, but presently doubled and returned to within a yard of them, concealing myself in a hollow oak. Just as I turned to double, I cried, 'whoop!' so hearing my voice at some distance, they had no idea that I was so near. They were engaged in an animated conversation, the end of which reached my ears as they darted off.
Lucy was saying, 'Yes, he is a mere boy to look at, but I'm very much mistaken if those dark eyes don't mean mischief — did you see how they sparkled when we showed our thighs? Oh, he'll do, Louisa, he'll do!' and off they ran.
I very readily understood the meaning of the amorous Lucy, so drawing out my ivory truncheon, I removed behind the tree, placing myself in an attitude which seemed to imply that I was performing a lustration of its roots. Then I shouted out twice in succession, 'whoop, whoop!' They soon appeared, running full tilt at the tree.
'Stop, stop a moment!' I shouted, with an affectation of modesty I was far from feeling. But they only came on the faster, one ran one side of the oak, the other the other side, so that simultaneously they had a clear full view of that manly attribute which set at rest for ever all doubts of my powers. The girls blushed up to the ears and turned away their heads, then looked again, and at length exclaimed, 'Oh, for shame!' and seeing me shaking it at them, Lucy gave me a box on the ear, saying, 'Put it away, put it away, naughty boy!'
Now a box on the ear from a young lady is, as everybody knows, a challenge, so I flung my arms round her neck and covered her with kisses.
Louisa laughed, Lucy struggled, but at length kissed me in return, and her friend came in for her share. We sat down on a bank and then commenced a good deal of badinage, fun and frigging, but as to the 'great go', I found that was 'no go', at all events, for the present. So after finishing our walk we retraced our steps to the pier, and so returned to Portsea Terrace.
On the way Lucy told me how it was she and her sisters were going out to India, for I had expressed some surprise that young ladies who possessed in so eminent a degree the bel air which the best London society can alone give to an English girl, should have been induced to expose themselves to all the vicissitudes of a tropical climate, when their charms would unquestionably be fully appreciated at home.
'I must tell you, my little friend,' said Lucy with an engaging smile, 'that our father, General W-r, was a man who cared for no creature but himself; returning to England after thirty years service in India, he married our dear mother for her beauty alone, she not having one shilling. He had amassed a fine fortune, and what do you think he did with it. He invested every rupee in the purchase of a government annuity for his life, taking no thought of what would become of us when he died. By this selfish act he secured to himself, with his general's pay, about seven
