so, and seemed to enjoy the fruit and wine. 'Now dip your pretty little paws in this basin of water, here's the towel, that's the ticket. Now let us make love.'
Presently I asked, 'What's the name of the old woman, my girl?'
'Mrs Aventura.'
'Do you like her?'
'Who, I, sir? I can't endure her.'
'No?'
'She's a dreadful old woman.'
'Is she though?'
'Horrid.'
'Why?'
'Oh she will make the girls do the most shocking things with quite old men — if they only pay her well.'
'Pooh, my dear, that is very natural, the old girl only wants to make up a purse, I suppose.'
'Yes, but most of the girls don't like it, especially the little ones.'
By this time I was frigging her with great assiduity.
'And you, my dear, how do you feel, do you think you shall like it?'
She cast down her eyes pressed her cheeks against mine, and whispered, 'With you I think I shall, but not with old men.'
I gently laid her down on the bed, and taking off my shirt and pajamahs (loose silk drawers), I lay down beside her and told her how I had seen her bathing, how much I admired her and how I was determined to have her. Then I mounted her and began to drive at her virgin cunny. What a tight little box it was. I'm afraid I put her to considerable pain, for she struggled and cried very much; but, what was curious, whenever I offered to release her, she only hugged me the closer, and tried to smile through her tears. This conduct on her part so captivated me that, thrusting with double vigour, at the fourth push I went through all obstacles up to the hilt. She groaned and sobbed, exclaiming, 'Oh, oh, how dreadfully you have hurt me. Oh, I shall die!' But presently a soft languor pervaded her frame, she kissed me gently and began to spend. What a delicious moment it was. After a time, my climax almost coming, I clung to her with fury, grasping and feeling every charm, and then sent a rushing torrent up the rosy passage.
For some minutes afterwards we lay without sense or motion, prostrate on the bed, but coming to by degrees, we began to toy and kiss, and soon wrought ourselves up to the same state of excitement we had before been in, only this time her shyness had a good deal worn off, and she seemed as willing for the play as myself. In fine, I passed a most delicious night, and so got into the good graces of my companion that she promised so soon as I joined my regiment at Cannanore, which I was to do in a fortnight (being only temporarily attached to the one I was then with), to endeavour to escape from the school and join me there.
But matters turned out very unfortunate for the furtherance of our little game. I suppose I may have indiscreetly talked to some of the officers of the regiment about the fine girl I had had, and at length it came to the ears of the colonel. He set his spies to work, and soon wormed out the whole story. Then I was sent for, and severely reprimanded for 'the great impropriety of my conduct'. I was
'reported' to the Adjutant-General, and was ordered to join my regiment forthwith. Having thus, rather unscrupulously, got rid of me, the old scoundrel sent for Mrs Aventura and asked her how she dared to let one of his subalterns take precedence over him and have the pick of the girls?
The old lady, plucking up some courage, replied with asperity that for her part those who paid best were the customers she most liked. That the young gentleman had very handsomely given her eighty rupees, while he, the colonel, never yet gave her more than fifty, and she added that she thought she had been bullied by him long enough. The colonel was furious, he swore that unless she immediately brought him the girl, for whom he would not pay her a single pice, he would send in such a report of her conduct as would lead to her being indicted 'for corrupting the morals and extorting money from young officers', when she might rely upon it her school would be broken up, and herself sent to jail.
Terrified at these threats, she drew in her horns, and promised compliance, so poor Lillias was carried off to the old rascal, spite all her tears and opposition. But she was a resolute girl and, indignant at the way her young lover had been treated, enraged at the compulsion employed upon herself, she defied the colonel to his face, called him a mean wretch, and upon his offering to salute her with a kiss she spat upon him. The colonel coolly wiped his face with his handkerchief, called his servants, and having made them tie her down upon the cot in his room, ravished her on the spot, in spite of her cries and struggles. Having done this, he unbound her, for she had fainted, turned her over, and tied her again in a different position, and having put a bolster under her belly to raise her posteriors well up, the cruel man administered a severe castigation with a rattan; then making her put on her clothes, he kicked her into the street. Poor Lillias managed to crawl as far as Mr A-, the District Magistrate, and told her story; a surgeon was sent for, who examined her, and the whole matter was reported to government.
Meantime Mrs Aventura, having heard how her pupil had been abused, decamped in the night with all her money and jewels, and was never more heard of. As for the colonel he was brought to a court-martial, and having first been dismissed the service, was then transported for seven years by the civil judge for the rape and assault. Lillias went back to her friends.
I read the whole affair in the newspapers at the time, and soon forgot the adventure, in the gaieties of Cannanore. My reputation had preceded me, and on my arrival I found myself caressed by all the ladies, and my society sought after by the men. I had a happy knack of telling a droll story and could set a whole mess table in a roar at something I had said, without allowing any smile to appear on my own lips. It is a great secret in telling a funny anecdote, or giving vent to a witticism, for so sure as the narrator or wit smiles at his own joke, his listeners will compose their countenances into gravity, and if he adds, as some really witty fellows do, 'Not bad that, eh?' then woe to him, he will at once be voted a bore, and never more listened to.
I now commenced a regular course of fucking with native women. The usual charge for the general run of them is two rupees. For five, you may have the handsomest Mohammedan girls, and any of the high-caste women who follow the trade of courtesan. The 'fivers' are a very different set of people from their frail sisterhood in European countries; they do not drink, they are scrupulously cleanly in their persons, they are sumptuously dressed, they wear the most costly jewels in profusion, they are well educated, and sing sweetly, accompanying their voices on the viola da gamba, a sort of guitar, they generally decorate their hair with clusters of clematis or the sweet- scented bilwa flowers entwined with pearls or diamonds. They understand in perfection all the arts and wiles of love, are capable of gratifying any tastes, and in face and figure they are unsurpassed by any women in the world.
They have one custom that seems singular to a European — they not only shave the mons Veneris, but take a clean sweep underneath it, so that until you glance at their hard, full and enchanting breasts, handsome beyond compare, you fancy you have got hold of some unfledged girl.
The Rajpootanee girls pluck out the hairs as they appear with a pair of tweezers, as the ancient Greek women did, and this I think a very preferable process to the shaving.
It is impossible to describe the enjoyment I experienced in the arms of these sirens. I have had English, French, German and Polish women of all grades of society since, but never, never did they bear a comparison with those salacious, succulent houris of the Far East.
But although immersed in this voluptuous debauchery, I did not entirely neglect my fair countrywomen. I found time to go to balls, routs and dinner parties; I found time even for hunting and shooting, and studying the language and dialects of the country.
What an exciting, jovial life it was!
Amongst the ladies of the cantonment was one who more particularly took my fancy: she was the wife of a Major T-, of HM's — th Dragoons, a lovely blue-eyed blonde of twenty-two, blooming and fresh as a daisy. Her husband was sixty if he was a day, and most incontestably to prove himself an ass, had married her from a Hammersmith boarding school, some five years before, that is, when she was seventeen. She had then seen nothing of the world, and hardly knew what love was. But the major was her guardian, and thus secured to himself both her person and fortune, which was considerable. To this sweet creature I paid such marked attention that we soon understood one another. She the more readily accepted the intrigue as my extremely youthful appearance, to a certain extent, disarmed scandal, and she wished to draw off from the public eye her real cavaliere servente, Captain M-, by whom she had had a child, which passed for the major's. Indeed, Major T- was very fond of the little
