thousand pleasant subjects of prattle found their way into their talk, until Julia began to see that there was something which Bella was keeping back. In fact, her rapidity was simply a mask for the concealment of some piece of news which she was somewhat reluctant to break to her companion.
“I know you have something to tell me, Bella, there is something I have not heard yet which you have to tell me; what is it, darling?”
“Can’t you guess,” she said, with a wicked smile playing round the dimpling corners of her rosy lips.
“Is it anything about Father Ambrose?” asked Julia.
“Oh! I feel so dreadful and awkward, when I see him now, and yet he told me there was no harm in what he did.”
“No more there was, depend upon it; but what did he do?”
“Oh, more than ever. He told me such things, and then he put his arm round my waist, and kissed me, till he almost took my breath away.”
“And then,” suggested Bella. “How can I tell you, dearest! Oh, he said and did a thousand things, until I thought I was going out of my senses.”
“Tell me some of them at least.”
“Well, you know that, after he had kissed me so hard, he put his fingers down my dress, and then he played with my foot and my stocking, and then he slipped his hand up higher, until I thought I was going to faint.”
“Oh! you little wanton, I feel sure you liked his proceedings all the while.”
“Of course I did. How could I do otherwise? He made me feel as I had never felt in my life before.”
“Come, Julia, that was not all—he did not stop there, you know.”
“Oh no; of course he did not, but I cannot tell you this next proceeding.”
“Away with such childishness,” cried Bella, pretending to be piqued at her friend’s reticence. “Why not avow all to me?”
“If I must, I suppose there is no help for it, but it seemed so shocking, being all so new to me, and yet not wrong. After he had made me feel as if I was dying of a delicious shivering sensation, which his fingers produced, he suddenly took my hand in his and placed it upon something he had which felt like a child’s arm. He bid me clasp it tightly. I did as he directed me, and then looking down, I beheld a great red thing, all white skin and blue veins, with a funny, round purple top, like a plum. Well, I saw that this thing grew out from between his legs, and that it was covered below with a great mass of curly black hair.”
Julia hesitated.
“Go on,” said Bella.
“Well, he kept my hand upon it, making me rub it over and over, it was so large, and stiff, and hot!”
“No doubt it was under the excitement of such a little beauty .”
“Then he took my other hand and placed both together on his hairy thing. I felt so frightened when I saw how his eyes glared and his breathing grew hard and quick. He reassured me. He called me his dear child, and, rising, bade me fondle the stiff thing in my bosom. It stuck out close to my face.”
“Is that all?” asked Bella, persuasively.
“No, no, indeed it is not, but I feel so ashamed. Shall I go on? Is it right that I should divulge these things? Well then, after I had held this monster in my bosom a little time, during which it throbbed and pressed me with a warm delightful pressure, he asked me to kiss it. I complied at once. A warm sensuous smell arose from it, as I pressed my lips upon it. At his request I continued kissing it. He bade me open my lips and rub the top between them. A moisture came at once upon my tongue, and on an instant a thick gush of warm fluid ran into my mouth, and spurted over my face and hands.
I was still playing with it, when a noise of a door opening at the other end of the church obliged the good Father to put away what I had hold of- ‘For,’ he said, ‘it is not for the common people to know what you know, or to do what I permit you to do.’
His manner was so kind and obliging, and he made me think I was quite different to all the other girls. But tell me, Bella, dearest, what is the mysterious news you have to tell me? I am dying to know.”
“Answer me first, whether or not the good Ambrose told you of joys—of pleasures, derived from the object you trifled with, and whether he pointed out any means by which such delights could be indulged without sin?”
“Of course he did—he said that in certain cases such indulgence became a merit.”
“As in marriage, for instance, I suppose.”
“He said nothing about that, except that marriage often brought much misery, and that even marriage vows might, under certain circumstances, be broken advantageously.”
Bella smiled. She recollected to have heard somewhat the same strain of reasoning from the same sensual lips.
“Under what circumstances did he mean then that these joys were permitted?”
“Only when the mind was firmly set upon a good motive, beyond the actual indulgence itself, and that, he says, can only be, when some young girl, selected from others for the qualities of her mind, is dedicated to the relief of the servants of religion.”
“I see,” said Bella, “go on.”
“Then he said how good I was, and how meritorious it would be for me to exercise the privilege he endowed me with, and devote myself to the sensuous relief of himself and others, whose vows prevented them from either marrying or otherwise gratifying the feeling which nature has implanted in all men alike. But tell me, Bella, you have some news for me—I know you have.”
“Well, then, if I must—I must, I suppose. Know then, that good Father Ambrose has arranged that it will be best for you to be initiated at once, and he has provided for it here today.”
“Oh, me! You don’t say so! I shall be so ashamed, so dreadfully shy.”
“Oh, no, my dear, all that has been thought of. Only so good and considerate a man as our dear Confessor could have so perfectly arranged everything as he has done. It is designed that the dear man shall be able to enjoy all beauties your witching little self can afford him, while, to make a long matter short, he will neither see your face, nor you his.”
“You don’t say so! In the dark, then, I suppose?”
“By no means; that would be to forego all the pleasures of sight, and he would lose the rich treat of looking upon those delicious charms the dear man has set his heart upon possessing.”
“How you make me blush, Bella—but how, then, is it to be?”
“It will be quite light,” explained Bella, with the air of a mother to her child. “It will be in a nice little chamber we have; you will be laid upon a convenient couch, and your head will be passed through and concealed by a curtain, which so fills a doorway leading to an inner apartment that only your body, all naked to the view, will be exposed to your ardent assailant.”
“Oh, for shame! Naked, too!”
“Oh, Julia my dear, tender Julia,” murmured Bella, as a shudder of keen ecstatic feeling rushed through her, “what delights will be yours; how you will awake to the delicious joys of immortals and find, now that you have approached that period called puberty, the solaces which I know you already stand in need of.”
“Oh, don’t Bella, pray, don’t say that.”
“And when at length,” continued her companion, whose imagination had already led her into a reverie to which outward impressions were quite impervious, “when at length the struggle is over, the spasms arrive, and that great throbbing thing shoots out its viscid stream of maddening delight, oh! then she will join that rush of ecstasy, and give down her virgin exchange.”
“What are you murmuring about?”
Bella roused herself.
“I was thinking,” she said, dreamily, “of all the joys of which you are about to partake.”
“Oh, don’t,” Julia exclaimed, “you make me blush, when you say such dreadful things.”
Then followed a further conversation, in which many small matters had their place, and while it was in progress I found an opportunity to overhear another dialogue, quite as interesting to me, but of which I shall only furnish the summary for my readers.
It took place in the library, and occurred between Mr Delmont and Mr Verbouc. They had evidently understood each other on the main points at issue, which incredible as they may appear, were the surrender of Bella’s person to Mr Delmont in consideration for a certain round sum to be then and there paid down, and
