she marched them into the room where the men waited impatiently. She did not care that her wig was crooked on her head and that she had only her trousers left to cover her body. She was now all energy, resolved to play the game and to do it in great style.
The men behaved well when she brought the girls in nude. They had put ten chairs in the middle of the room and had arranged for a complete lottery which took some time to carry out. Meanwhile they stared at the ten naked beauties in their midst. Many randy comments and jests flew through the air. The girls in turn, stimulated by Madame and not knowing what was in store for them, answered the men with no less cheery remarks. They threw them kisses, touching their lips and then their breasts or love-nests in salutation to the fellows who, they said, they would like to win and get poked by. The winners having been decided on, Grushenka picked out for every group two helpers who should stand by and give assistance. The girls were told to kneel down on the chairs and to hold their buttocks in the air ready for aggression. They did so laughingly and opened their knees, for of course they thought they were going to be poked in the love-nest. It was a wise move of Madame that she had selected those helpers. They now stood alongside each couple, held the girls' heads down, played with their nipples and made excursions towards their ticklers. It was lucky because every one of these simple girls, as soon as she felt a shaft trying to force her back-door, howled and began fighting. They jumped from the chairs, rolled over on the carpet, kicked with their legs and were utterly inclined to put up a good fight. And how the watching crowd enjoyed it! Bets were made on who would be the first man to succeed and who would be the last girl to be deflowered. None of the men ever had seen such a spectacle, and the party became a huge success. The gladiators took their weapons in their bands and rubbed them quite openly. Self-restraint or shame was by now entirely lost. Grushenka herself, standing in the middle of the circle was caught by the atmosphere and, if the men had demanded that the girls should first be whipped, she would have agreed to it gladly-for her own pleasure as well as that of her guests. The girls were overpowered in different positions: some lying on the floor on their bellies, others with their heads between the legs of a helper bending over them, one in such a way that the man sat on a chair while the two helpers put the girl on his lap, holding her in the air by her knees so that she could not stave off the attack. Only one girl was still fighting on the floor: a small, young girl, very blonde, her long hair loosened and dishevelled over her breasts and shoulders.
Grushenka stepped in and settled that matter herself. She waved away the man whom the girl had each time skillfully shaken off at the moment when he thought he was about to succeed. Then she made the girl get up and took hold of her by the hair between her legs and by one breast. Hypnotizing her by putting the whole weight of her personality into a few commanding words, she subdued the girl completely. She made her kneel on the chair and bend very low. Then she opened up the cleft and cleverly fingered the tight passageway for a few moments. She now invited the winning man to come and take what was his. The girl did not stir and did not dare make an outcry when she felt her back-entrance filled with a big love-instrument. She was, incidentally, the only girl who got poked kneeling on a chair in the way the men had intended it for all of them. But none the less, every one of them was devirginated. When this spectacle was over, Grushenka ordered every girl to go to her room and to wait for visitors. She invited the men, after the girls had left, to go into the rooms and to have a good time with the girls. She computed that every girl would have to take care of about ten men, which could be done very handily. The men did not ask for a second invitation, and went not alone but in groups, friends and strangers together, just as it happened. For the next few hours some fellows were sitting in every girl's room. While one man lay on top of a beauty who wiggled her buttocks strenuously in order to get through as quickly as possible, others were waiting their turn. If the men had gone home afterwards, as Grushenka had planned, everything would have been fine. But after achieving their goals, they returned downstairs and lay and sat around, drinking. Songs filled the air, jokes were told, glasses were emptied, food was devoured. Some slumbered for a while only to wake up ready to begin again. After they had beguiled themselves enough downstairs, they would explore the whole house again, watching the love making and mixing in it themselves. Many scenes of lust and depravity took place in the girls' chambers. One group of fellows, for example, remembering the deflowered virgins, broke into their rooms and let them have some back-door poking in spite of their tears and protests. Grushenka was everywhere and anywhere, first animated and cheery, then weary and tired. She slumbered in an easy chair, took a drink or two again, comforted her girls or got drunken men out of the way. Finally she sent a lackey to her captain, who tactfully succeeded in getting the drunken guests out. The mansion was in a state of disorder and dirt. The tired-out whores and their mistress slumbered in a deathlike sleep for forty-eight hours. But the excitement, costs and lasciviousness of the strenuous task had not been for nothing. Madame Grushenka Pawlovsk had put her establishment on the map, and she handled it afterwards in a spirit very much to the advantage of her purse. She became rich and famous-in fact, so much so that, after her death and after her famous salon had long been closed, anyone in Moscow could point out her house, just as in Paris is still pointed out the famous establishment of Madame Gourdan, who one hundred- and fifty years ago was known all over Europe as the best Madame in the world, under the pet name “the little Countess.” How Madame Grushenka ended her own love life is not known. It might be that she found her satisfaction through the aid of the friendly tongues of her girls; maybe she married a solid young man to whom she clung quietly without the public's knowledge. The last time that we hear of her is in the official document of the police, of which we told in the preface to this story, where she is described as “a distinguished lady in her prime, well formed and refined, with bold blue eyes and a full smiling mouth, which is able to talk adroitly and to the point.” May this description of her have been fitting to her until her end.
