CHAPTER VII
I was indeed charmed by the intelligent, ladylike, and straightforward manners of this young woman, treating flagellation from an “administrative? And commercial standpoint. Nothing about her smacked of the professional birching lady I had hitherto met-the sort of swishing siren who generally tried to infuse a sensuous flavour into the birching bargain and ordeal. Miss Florence treated the whole thing coldly and financially, without betraying the least feeling, real or feigned.
It pleased me to add to my flagellating knowledge, and fix in the museum of my mind this specimen of a “normal” flogging woman. I was impatient to see and feel her at work.
After having closed the drawer, wherein she had slipped my bank-note, the birching queen struck a bell on the table twice. At this signal, a charming young girl, certainly not over eighteen, came into the room. She was simply, but coquettishly dressed in a simple dark frock with a white apron. On her shapely little head, she carried a tiny, pleated lace cap.
“Get this gentleman ready for ordinary punishment,” said Miss Florence to her youthful assistant.
“Yes, miss,” replied the winsome lass. “Follow me, sir, please,” she added, addressing herself to me.
She led me into a large room, quite square, and shut the door behind her. There was very little furniture. In the middle, a plain wooden form of thick unvarnished oak. Close to it, a small table; a couch in an angle against the wall; and in another corner, a large trough, where rods, of all the same length and size, were in soak. On a flower- stand, near the sofa, were several whalebone riding-whips, flanked by martinets with wooden handles to which were nailed ten or twelve leather thongs.
“This is what you must do, sir,” said the engaging damsel. “You must take off your jacket, let down your braces, if you have any, or if not, take off your belt and lie face down ward on that bench. I'll do the rest.”
I followed her instructions to the letter.
She took a wide strap, furnished with a buckle, and clasped it round my body in the middle of the back, fastening me securely to the hard wood. Then, with silken cords, she tied my wrists and ankles, binding them to the upper and lower ends of the form.
It was not without delight that I felt her pretty, little, cool, pink fingers rummaging round my waist, pulling my trousers and drawers down to my feet, afterwards throwing up the hinder tail of my shirt which she fixed to my shoulders wit pins she took from her bodice.
I blushed with shame as I thus exposed the most secret parts of my frame to this sweet girlie-so engaging and so young. She, however, betrayed no emotion of any kind; no rosy flush invaded the fresh bloom of her cheeks, and her innocent eyes glanced calmly at me, as if she was accomplishing some natural task or ordinary household duty.
Going to the trough, she took out two rods, shook the moisture from them, wiped them on a towel, and placed one on a chair at each side of the bench.
“Miss Florence will be with you in a minute,” she said, and then with a whirl of her slight skirts, she flew lightly out of the room, like a bird.
Her simplicity was delightful.
I was alone full five minutes, securely tied down on my bench, when the door was thrown open at last and the beautiful flogging female advanced to where I was. She had changed her dress, and now wore a tight-fitting black silk frock, very high in the neck, but sleeveless, showing the entire lengthe of her marble, muscular arm.”
“Sir,” she declared, “I am now about to deal you sixty strokes with a birch; thirty at once in one direction, and after a moment's rest, thirty more in the contrary direction. I hope you will endure your punishment courageously. It is quite useless to cry out or pray to me, as I am obliged to give you your full number of cuts without stopping for any reason whatsoever. Look out!” she added.
The first blow fell noisily on my hinder cheeks, the other cuts following quickly, without a break. She did truly flog with clockwork regularity, aiming to cover the two posterior spheres at once. The pointed ends of the twigs spread out like fiery tongues, searing my bottom all over with their flames.
The skillful lashing lady, her features impassible, stood as erect as a statue, her arm rising and falling with almost automatic precision. I groaned and twisted about under the consecutive cuts, falling fast and sturdily on my suffering stern, torn by the scratching ends of the branches.
At the thirtieth blow, Miss Florence cast away her instrument of torture, and sat down, as she crossed her legs, in a waiting attitude.
I admired her clear-cut profile and the outline of her fine figure, terminating in small pointed, patent-leather shoes peeping out from under her skirt. I marvelled at her unimpassioned disposition, permitting her to remain indifferent to such a sensational occurrence as the flagellation of a man. She soon rose to her feet, and crossed over to the other side of the oak bench.
“Look out!” she said again, emphasising her ironical warning with the first blow of the second dose.
The rod continued to cut my throbbing skin. It's “swish, swish,” was mechanically regular, and the sharp ends hurt me terribly, smartly applied to the side of my bottom which had the least suffered during the first half of the castigation. My whole backside ached with scalding pain.
I now began to feel as if bright flames were licking my stern, but the vigorous biceps of the nonchalant young woman was still active and I was flogged atrociously; the strokes descending in cadence as if proceeding from a motor.
The second rod was thrown to where laid the stump of the first, and my beautiful flagellating lady, as calm and as cold as ever, dropped a curtsey.
“All over!” she exclaimed.
I caught sight of the train of her black dress disappearing through the doorway, and I was very nearly regretting that I no longer felt her cruel birching touches so suddenly cut short. They had set my flesh on fire, without extinguishing my devouring desires.
Another minute, and the graceful girl came back. In the same deliberate way as her mistress, she unbuckled the strap, cast off the ropes, and pointed to an adjoining dressing-room.
As soon as I was alone in this feminine toilet retreat, full of subtle womanly perfume, my sense of eroticism manifested itself in furious fashion. The scientific and regular flagellation just endured, and that had not been terminated by any outburst of manly enjoyment as was the usual custom with lustful, ladies, seemed to me as if some powerful engine had been suddenly brought to a standstill. Something was wanting. It was exactly what a frenzied lover would feel, if interrupted during copulation, just as he reaches the ecstatic goal. With my hands, I rubbed my excoriated bottom, which was scarcely scratched. My burning flesh was languishing for more energetical caresses of the rod.
When the girl came to show me out, I followed her mechanically, but as I reached the hall, I hesitated. I was loath to leave the house where lovely, supple rods were always ready, and putting out my foot to prevent the girl closing the door, I pushed her gently aside. I boldly walked into the combined parlour and office.
My beautiful flogging female had resumed her grey costume, and seated in an armchair, was reading an evening paper.
“Are you going, sir?” she said, as she saw me enter.
“No, miss,” I replied. “On the contrary, I have returned.”
“I thought you would!” she said, quietly, and rising, dropped her newspaper.
“I immediately handed her two bank notes, amounting in all to twenty-five dollars. Without asking me to explain matters further, she put them in her drawer, striking the bell as before.
“Prepare the gentleman for severe punishment,” she said, as soon as the young girl answered her summons.
“All right, miss,” said the maid, at once leading me back into the room which I had only left a few minutes before.
I was about to obtain complete satisfaction and get a taste of one of those lithe whalebone riding-whips, that sting so terribly.
“This is what you've got to do,” said the pretty maid, sending me into the dressing room. “You'll undress
