Mabel

of your claws are definitely tamed and their personalities annihilated for over, Well, I have a similar job for you and that is why I asked you to come. I am the legal guardian of a girl called Mabel Sunway, a very pretty girl, aged eighteen and a half. She has been an orphan five years and was brought up in an expensive school in the suburbs of Paris. As she has now left that school, it is up to me to look after her till she is of age.'

He drew near Dorothea and lowered the tone of his voice.

'Now, when she is twenty-one, Mabel Sunway is to inherit a great fortune, something like a hundred thousand pounds. And I don't want her to be able to use that money, do you get me?'

'I understand perfectly!' Dorothea exclaimed, with a cruel smile and almost licking her chops.

'If you succeed in reducing that girl to bondage,' Lord Kelingson whispered, 'I'll give you ten percent of the heritage.'

'Agreed! And I can assure you that when your Mabel gets out of my hands she wont have a will of her own to claim her money.'

'Fine!' the man exclaimed, rubbing his hands with satisfaction. 'But I warn you, Miss Von Banner, your task won't be an easy one. Mabel is pretty and has been brought up like a princess. She is high-handed and capricious, terribly snobbish and imbued with her rank and fortune. Besides, I believe she is very modern in outlook, independent and flirtations and quite bold. It wont be easy for you to tame her.'

'I'll enjoy it all the more,' the beautiful governess said.

She got up from her armchair and walked up and down the room, which made her powerful hips move suggestively under her tight skirt.

'I'll tame her!' she exclaimed. 'I'll shower humiliations of all kinds upon her, I'll tame her with the whip, with fetters, corsets, tight panties and all the ways and means I have at my disposal.'

'I trust you, dear Miss von Berner. As soon as my ward arrives I shall hand her over to you and depart for a long trip in Europe. I shall be back only in about three months and during my absence you will be the absolute master of the castle and you will have my faithful maid Bridget to help you in your taming work.'

'Be without fear, milord, when you come back home Mabel will lick your boots and tell you that she is my life-long slave and that she will submit to your authority as well as mine if I want it so.' On hearing those words, Lord Kelingson smiled with joy. He could not help admiring the calm assurance, the authority and marvellous beauty of this strange governess who dominated girls by means of whippings and made them her slaves. And, already, he was savouring the thought of the heritage of pretty Mabel that would be entirely his.

The same day, at five in the afternoon, Mabel Sunway arrived in the mysterious castle. Her guardian had picked her up at the station and bad been obliged to hire a small lorry to carry her numerous luggage.

Lord Kelingson had not exaggerated — the young English girl was very pretty. Her eighteen years of age were blooming with incomparable grace and freshness. She was of medium height and her figure was admirable. She as apples, and a behind that jutted out provocatively and showed its curves under her dress with the suggestive cleavage in the middle.

Her complexion was clear, her nose so to speak witty, very soft big blue eyes, pale blue hair which made her look like one of those eighteenth-century paintings which are so delightfully charming.

She was dressed very smartly and Lord Kelingson noticed that she wore a lot of make-up, even on her eyes. During the first year Mabel had spent in a French college, Mabel had received every month an important sum of money from the notary who looked after the heritage of her dead parents. She could use that money as she pleased and hence, her manners were free and high-handed and she had the insolent assurance of a very wealthy young girl who knows what money can buy.

Lord Kelingson greeted her with simulated affection, but it did not deceive the young English girl. She did not like her guardian, although she had only seen him twice in her life. Be seemed to her wicked and false.

'I'm so sorry,' the lord said, 'but I can stay with you only till to-night and then I go away on a long trip. That is why, my dear, thinking that you would feel lonely by yourself in this big isolated estate, I have hired a governess to keep you company.'

Mabel's eyebrows shot up suddenly.

'A governess? But, uncle, I am no longer of age to be 'governed, don't you think so?'

'I'm afraid I was unhappy in my choice of words,' Lord Kelingson said. 'She's more a companion than an actual governess, — a kind of friend, you see. I'm sure you will like her. She is a very attractive twenty-eight year old woman. And, even though you are up-to-date, I feel sure that you will learn something from her and that she will give you some precious advice.'

'I don't need anybody's advice!' Miss Sunway retorted proudly. 'I was perfectly well brought up in France and I won't tolerate anyone intruding into my private life.'

Lord Kelingson realized that her ward would not be easy to govern. She really had a very strong personality for her eighteen years.

'Come, come,' he said genially, 'we aren't going quarrel on our first day together, are we? Don't you imagine that I would impose upon you any kind of obligation. However, I would advise you not to act in such a spirit of revolt, when you are twenty-one, you will do what you please. But until then don't forget that I an your guardian and that, according to the law, I have to look after you and your education.'

Mabel blushed. She knew that only too well. For three more years she would have to live in this castle and curb her instincts of revolt. Besides, her guardian had the keys to where the money was and without money she could do nothing. So, on reflection, it was wiser to be more tolerant and accept the suggestions of this uncle of hen who, after all, might not be as bad as all that.

Lord Kelingson understood that her ward was beginning to be more reasonable.

'Well, my dear Mabel, I have to say good-bye now,' he said in a kind voice. 'You won't be seeing your governess before to-morrow morning, for she has gone to town. Until then, make yourself at home and do what you like. Bridget, the maid, will naturally be under your orders.'

He kissed her with affection and went oat.

Alone, Mabel started thinking. It was hard for her to get used to the idea of having a governess She was terribly independent and proud and had so for been pampered and treated like the rich, noble girl she was. At college, she had had very good friends who loved and admired her for she dominated them morally, and, although she was gifted to her studies, she did exactly what she pleased and not more. What she loved was, before all, sports and pleasure. Very often, she went out to Paris with some of the girls and went so far as to go and have tea in some dancing cabarets. She was received in the best Parisian society and had experienced the joy of flirtation in more than one brilliant evening. All that was still in her mind, a delightfully fresh souvenir. But now, what was her life going to be like? How would she feel in this vast solitary castle, away from all pleasures, with an uncle whom she did not like and with a governess she had not asked for? Indeed, the future was not very smiling.

She vowed to herself that she would feign to accept this new life that they imposed upon her but that all the time, she would react under the surface, striving to maintain intact her personality of a young: and wealthy young girl; and never to let herself be dominated by these people whom she considered strangers.

Mabel was moiling over all that while unpacking her things and patting them away in the sumptuous room that had been given her, and this occupation distracted her from all her gloomy thoughts. Being very coquettish, she admired, one by one, the expensive dresses which had been made specially for her at the best places in Paris. With loving care, she pat away in the cupboards all her silk blouses, frilly panties, stockings of the finest quality, brassieres, etc. She would soon show those Scottish people how a pretty young heir brought tip in the luxury of Paris knows how to dress.

She bad just finished putting her things away when she heard a knock at the door. It was Bridget. She was really pretty, that healthy-looking girl, in her silk pale blue dress, her lace apron and maid's cap.

But Mabel gave her a despising look. Like many snobbish English girls, she had a high notion of the difference of social classes and despised domestics.

'You are Bridget, the maid, I take it?' she rapped out.

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Has my uncle told you that you would be under my personal service during his absence?'

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Good. You're going to start your service at once by bringing me my supper in this room. I do not want to go down to the dining-room.'

'But, ma'am, I was just coming to tell you that dinner was served downstairs.'