cheque for an amount proportionate to my enthusiastic regard for her, I found myself once more in the populous streets, amidst hurrying passers-by.
I was like a drunkard. My brain whirled. I staggered, overcome by too much enjoyment. Never had I emptied my blood-vessels in such violent spasms of sensuality. Hours after the divine sacrifice, the shock of the repeated orgasm still shook my frame, and I began to fathom the depth of the birching priestess's occult science and the dangers encompassing any man falling under the hidden sway of her mortal spells.
My robust constitution nevertheless conquered this momentary exhaustion of body and brain, and two days later, warm blood, like generous wine or liquid gold, coursed freely through my veins.
I felt deeply grateful for the efforts of the celestial queen of the birch who had thrown open for me the gates of a new paradise. I thought that the banker's draft I had left with her was an insufficient reward for the joy with which she had overwhelmed me. I wanted to present her with a lasting remembrance, which at the same time should be an adornment for her marvellous body. So I sent her a regal diadem set with large diamonds and sapphires; accompanied by a delirious letter, respectful withal.
In return, I received a perfumed note, with a seal representing Leda and the swan. In the language of the Latin poets, the whipping artiste thanked me, telling me that she would never forget. At the same time, she sent me a photograph of herself in the attitude of the sexless Venus to be seen in the Secret Museum of Naples. This picture resembled some marvellous masterpiece chiselled by Phidias of Praxiteles.
I felt sure that Nelly Lamb's bodily perfection was to be found in other types of the American race, and I sought everywhere for another modern Venus.
In society, at theatres, in the parks and streets, I wsa struck by the admirable proportions of splendid females, as tall as giants. I met women in profusion who were truly handsome, splendidly built; upright and good walkers; knowing how to carry themselves like goddesses. They could all boast of brilliant complexions, and their luxuriant locks were of varied golden shades; or else blue-black. They were real women, full of genuine feminine grace and allurement.
They were quite devoid of the juvenile, gracile, mincing charm of the Parisiennes, who are lissom and trip along the Boulevards or in the Bois with serpentine movements. Their saucy, bold manner is enhanced by their clever style of natty costume. An artistic Don Juan admires and appreciates the pets of the Gay City as a bric-a-brac collector does a pretty little Dresden statuette, but when in the commanding presence of the splendid and impeccable figure-from and academical point of view-of an American beauty, he is greatly impressed, as he would be if viewing some subline picture or work of art.
The young Yankee girl is a full-grown woman at fifteen. At that early age, her bosom is almost developed-and all the rest as well. Her youthful freshness appeals to our sensuality, for she is a blossoming bud; a flower whose captivating perfume mounts to the brain; an appetising peach to make your mouth water.
Such was the sensation I experienced when, strolling in the great park, I made the acquaintance of a ravishing fifteen-year-old maiden, her cheeks glowing with healthy bloom, her violet eyes sparkling like the waters of a mountain lake.
Mute with admiration, while looking at her, I felt the same enjoyment as a connaisseur enraptured with some rare object of art, but my delight ws unbounded when I learnt that this white dove was, like me, crazy on flagellation, and that her plump flesh shivered with inordinate lasciviousness at the stroke of a rod.
Her name ws Lucy Farman, and I often met her on the same park bench, in front of the flower-beds where the busy bees sucked the honey from gorgeous plants. She soon became the sweet comrade of my leisure hours, thanks to the unrestrained liberty enjoyed by the young lassies of the United States. They go about alone, wherever they like, making friends with any men who please them; difference of sex being no obstacle.
I interrogated her at great length concerning corporal punishment, as carried out in the boarding-school she had left but a few months before, and she described for my benefit some moving scenes, entering into minute details-without the least reticence.
The birch was in great favor at the “East End College for Young Ladies,” where my pretty maid graduated. Punishment was inflicted by a governess, who ws rather young, but authoritative and inexorable. The head school-mistress herself did not disdain to penalise certain bottoms for which she felt some particular affection; but she birched so tenderly that her discipline ws more agreeable than anything else.
Little Lucy ws one of her favourites. Thus it came about that she wsa gently led into the path of sensuous flagellation, under the voluptuous swishing of her soft-hearted directress.
The boarders were birched every evening before dinner, expiating all faults committed during the day. In very grave cases, the penality paid in the presence of the entire school assembled, and the chastisement formed a solemn spectacle.
The pupil's failings were noted in a book, afterward submitted to the mistress of the college. She then selected the culprits she desired to flog with her own hands. For the others, she wrote down how many strokes of the birch they were to receive from the rod of the disciplinarian governess. The book was then taken to the whipping room, where the birching lady ws in attendance with two female servants, ready to lend a hand in case of need.
Culprits were called in one after the other. The sentence condemning them to so many cuts was read out, and the two servant-girls at once seize the guilty girl. She was bound to a ladder, slopping against the wall; her feet on the first rung; her arms fastened above her head. A strap was buckled round her shoulders, to keep her body fixe in one position. Petticoats being pinned up to the waist, the victim's knickers were taken off entirely. The disciplinarian monitress now began to play her part, applying with firm and vigorous touch the prescribed number of strokes as set down in the birching-book by the head of the academy. The full amount ws always dealt out, in spite of supplications and shrieks. The whipping woman often added a few extra stingers on her own account, if the girl on the ladder howled or struggles too much.
For ordinary penitential purposes, the strokes varied in number between ten and fifty, according to the age of the young person condemned and taking into consideration the gravity of her misdemeanour. Delinquents of fifteen always got thirty lashes, and the severe flogging governess, never erring on the side of mercy, was mostly ready to add a few more, saying that her young ladies required twice the fustigation they got. After fifty blows, the young minx's delicate skins were generally covered with open weals. The standing rule was that a new rod should be used to each pupil, and the birches being ling and supple hit terribly hard. It ws the duty of the gardener to cut them from the trees in the grounds surrounding the college-buildings. He had to renew his stock as often as necessary in order that the bundles of birchen twigs should always be strong and ripe-neither too green, nor too old and easy to snap and break.
Birching for really serious faults wsa quite another thing-awe-inspiring and impressive. It took place in a large gymnasium where all the pupils and the governesses had to muster. The guilty girl was brought in, wearing a special dress, consisting of a long, unbleached linen smock, reaching to the ground. This was the victim's only garment. It buttoned up the back, and sleeves were knotted, like those of a strait waistcoat, to keep the arms from moving. The sinning lass's feet were chained together, while on her head was a paper cap, inscribed with the word, “Guilty.”
She ws then forced to stretch herself face downward on a heavy wooden bench, placed in the middle of the hall. The two servants tied her down with rough ropes in such away that it was impossible for her to make the least move. The smockfrock ws unbuttoned, baring the part of the body destined for the birch. Three governesses took it in turns to apply pitiless punishment; each of them dealing fifty heavy strokes. The girl roped to the bench yelled in heartrending fashion and her skin ws soon broken and bleeding on both buttocks. The most terrible part of the torture ws not this correction with long weighty rods. There was more to come. The disciplinary mistress stepped forward, and laid open the poor girl's swollen, wounded, gory bottom with ten sturdy, terrible, lashing cuts applied with a lady's riding-whip.
It often happened that the victim of such barbarous treatment fainted, and had to be carried away senseless to be cared for in the infirmary.
CHAPTER XIV
Sweet little Lucy's narrative made a great impression on me, especially the part relating to cruelty inflicted
