And she felt more than ever convinced of it when, a while later, Choisy's desire began to grow again and reached, to her eyes, gigantic proportions. She gave a shudder of anticipating pleasure and Choisy saw the spark in her eyes, and knew that it was his cue.
So in he went again and, brother, did he make her come! She would really have something to tell her grandchildren about-and talk about a bedtime story! Enough to keep you awake. Enough indeed to make the baby jump out of his cradle uttering wolf howls and rape his nanny. As the billy-goat said to the manny-goat: “How now brown ewe, how I love your hue.”
But enough persiflage and badinage and let's come back to the serious thing in hand. Did I say “in hand?” Brother, that was half an hour ago. Now it's “in” something else, something soft and something wet and something juicy, which made the something in question all sticky.
A sticky end? ha ha!
Tut tut! Enough of your jokes, sir!
Where were we? Oh, yes, on Hilda's sofa, and Choisy was doing things to her. Pleasurable things, it goes without saying (why the heck did I say it, then?).
And Hilda conceived a diabolic idea. She was now growing attached to this her first male, and, in order to attach him to her she decided there and then to be coquettish with him, that is, to pretend not to like him in order to make him pursue her all the more.
What a cockeyed tactic to adopt with a guy like Choisy. I ask you. It takes a perverted dame to get such naive ideas.
— Dear, dear, dear! (as the three stags said).
CHAPTER NINE
During the days that followed, Hilda tried to steal away from the male call of Choisy. But in vain. He pursued her everywhere, and even into her own home. And once in the place, he knew how to impose his will on her. At the sight of his convincing virility, her will-power buckled like a thin sheet of corrugated iron under the weight of a hippo perched on the back of a rhino. She swore like a trooper but gave in just the same. Just like the others.
But poor Choisy, superhuman though he may be, could not possibly satisfy four hungry females so he reduced his activities to two a day-Francesca or Hilda at night, and during the day Flavia or Charlotte. That was quite enough, thank you.
But the four women started thinking that he was deceiving them, without however being able to say with whom. And, of course, they had to keep their suspicions quiet for, being women of the world, they could not very well air their grievances in the salons. So they got their own back in the privacy of their bedrooms, and started nagging Choisy.
You know how it goes-something like “who were you with last night? Why didn't you come to me yesterday?” and all that sort of rot.
Flavia and Charlotte were more reserved-their reproaches were more like insinuations and hints full of double-entendre.
Charlotte suffered more than the others from the green-eyed monster, probably because she realized that she had given the best of herself to a man who was now deceiving her. After all, she had never gone with any man apart from her husband before Choisy seduced her. So she was naturally bitter about it. But she had grown very much attached to him and clung to him like ivy to the wall. She could not hold back her tears of vexation and passion. One day she told Choisy:
— I can't go on with this unbalanced existence. Since I have committed the greatest sin ever, I must accept all its consequences. I can't go on playing this comedy of virtue before the world, before my husband. I feel my strength ebbing away from me.
— Don't take it so hard, he tried to calm her, think of all the ladies who don't take so tragically such a petty sin.
— No, a thousand times no-I am not like those women for whom having a lover is no more important than taking medicine, she exclaimed.
She became a bit wild in her talk and mentioned damnation, hell and all the calamities that must befall those who commit adultery. Then, in a passionate fling, she put out an astonishing proposition:
— Let's stop deceiving people, she said, let's go away together!
— Both of us, go away? Choisy said, stunned.
— Yes, repeated Charlotte, who had made up her mind.
— But, where?
— Anywhere. There is no lack of countries where we can live and love in peace, hidden from prying eyes.
— This takes some thinking about, said Choisy wisely.
— Did we think before? So why think now? Now we have to accept what's coming to us.
Choisy thought that the best thing to do was to play for time.
— But, he said, we can't go away so suddenly. There is a snag, you see, I happen to have very little money about me at the moment. We couldn't live decently with the little I have.
— Can't you procure some money by post? she asked. Meanwhile I can sell a few family jewels. Anyway, people in love are content with very little.
— Well, said Choisy, hedging, I shall see with the people I am in business relations with.
The time when the baron (Charlotte's husband) would be coming back was drawing near, so Choisy kissed her good-bye, but not before she had told him:
— I trust you, my love. Take me away from here. Deliver me from this torment. Swear that you will.
Choisy gave his word. All's fair in love and war, he thought. And a juicy kiss from him placated Charlotte's tormented soul until their meeting.
Once outside he breathed with relief. He did not relish the idea of going away from this town so propitious to his lovelife. But he reflected that Charlotte would soon become tyrannical and nagging and that in spite of her love for him-or rather because of it-she would tolerate him no concession. So he decided to go and see her less often in the future.
Meanwhile however Charlotte was busily preparing for her departure. She feverishly packed her clothes and jewels into a case in order to be ready as soon as Choisy would give the word.
But, on that very evening, something unusual happened. Hilda, who had been waiting impatiently for Choisy to come to her, and was lying on her bed with her body all afire with the passion he had instilled in her, decided to go and see for herself what he was about. So, at night-fall, she took a gondola and went to Choisy's hotel.
She arrived just in time to see Choisy board a gondola, so she told her gondolier to follow Choisy, and thus she saw him go to Francesca's palace. She waited a little, but there soon was no doubt-Choisy was a traitor to her.
She boiled inwardly with rage and entertained in her mind thoughts of the most horrible bloody vengeance, but remembered in time that in Venice murderers are punished in such an exemplary manner that they never do it again, for the good reason that they are dead.
So she rapped out an order to her gondolier to drive her home, where, needless to say, she spent a terrible night, tortured by visions of Choisy kissing that girl, that other girl, unknown to her, and of his lying on top of her and his driving his beloved penis into her (oh, how she was aching for one right now! She put a finger into her cunt, shut her eyes-but no! Nothing could replace Choisy). She thought of him licking the other woman's cunt, and she wetted with saliva her middle and forefingers and rubbed her clitoris with them, soon bathing with love-juice the sheets of her bed.
As soon as dawn came, she went out and inquired about who inhabited the palace where she had seen Choisy go and spend the night and, without difficulty, learned that it was the possession of a rich merchant who kept a Sicilian woman called Francesca, a notorious courtesan.
She decided to wreak out a terrible vengeance. As she never for a moment supposed that that woman Francesca would give her love to any man, even Choisy, without getting paid in money, she penned an accusation
