composure so as not to give away the secret. Julia Denton, I observed out of the corner of my eye, wandered over to the comfortable armchair and seated herself with a little sigh of comfort. The first trap was sprung!
“Now then, Miss Molly,” I blandly continued, “you will notice the wristlets of those pulleys. You fasten them around your wrists and then grasp the rope with your hand, thus dividing your weight between wrist and hand, instead of all of it coming on the fingers as on a trapeze.”
“Oh, yes, I do remember now. Let me try it.”
Molly approached the pulleys, while I followed with a congenial smile. I fastened the ropes to her wrist, and she at once began to swing herself slowly and gently backward and forward.
Now that this was done, I walked slowly back toward the armchair. Julia Denton looked up at me with some surprise. I had adjusted the catch, which formerly closed the arms over its occupant the moment the latter seated herself, in such a way that it required the touch of my finger at the back of the chair. “Are you quite comfortable, Miss Denton?” I now inquired as my left forefinger sought the secret catch.
“Yes, quite, thank you. But really, Molly, I’ve seen enough. It’s very nice, and I suppose there are advantages, but I prefer my exercise outdoors-OHHH-what in the world? — stop it-how dare you-what does this mean?”
For having touched the catch, I now stepped back and saw the arms folding around Julia Denton’s waist, capturing her snugly and preventing her from escaping her fate.
“It means, Miss Denton, that I shall ask you to bear with me until I have concluded the little matter of some unfinished business with your charming companion,” I smilingly retorted.
Julia Denton stared up at me with an incredulous expression on her lovely face. “But, sir,” she protested in a voice that shook with indignation. “This is audacious and highhanded! I have absolutely nothing to do with whatever has gone between you and Molly, and you have surely no right to compel me to be a witness to anything scandalous. Molly, how could you? Do you mean to tell me you are actually on-Oh, it’s unthinkable and it offends my modesty even to say it aloud! — on more intimate terms with this man than simply those of casual acquaintance through your mother’s introduction?”
I glanced toward Molly Bashe, who still swung back and forth on the trapeze, the ropes fastened neatly about her wrists. I then strode forward to the wall and turned a little crank which acted on the windlass which acted on those pulley-ropes fixed so tightly to Molly’s wrists, which had the effect of hoisting her up till she strained on tiptoes.
“Oh dear! What are you doing, Mr. Jack? Please let me down! These ropes won’t come off, and they’re hurting my wrists.”
“I don’t propose to let you down quite yet, my dear,” was my calm retort as I approached her. Wide-eyed, and her face flushed, with that magnificent bosom of hers beginning to heave against the bodice of her frock, she at once rekindled within my loins the ardent flame so dear to Priapus, and one which had burned with so fierce a warmth on that other occasion when her buxom and officious mother had brought her to me for the purpose, as she had hoped then, of foisting Molly off on me as my nuptial consort.
“There,” I said at last as I stepped back and pretended to study her, “you are quite properly prepared for the resumption of our unfinished business, Miss Molly Bashe.”
“Sir, this is ungallant and unworthy of you,” Julia Denton protested from her chair of treachery. She made ineffectual attempts to rise, but of course the mechanical contrivances of that piece of furniture quite foiled them.
“It’s quite useless to struggle, Miss Denton,” I remarked, “and I advise you to conserve your strength so that your undivided attentions may be given to your lovely companion. She has un-pardonably offended me and impugned my honor as a gentleman, which I cannot and will not tolerate. I am exasperated by now, I can quite assure you, over the insolent way the female of the species employs her supposed advantage of sex by flaunting herself, by insulting, and by taunting, believing that she is inviolate and immune from the consequences of a justly deserved punishment. But this time, Miss Molly Bashe, I intend to show you that I do not subscribe to this policy in the least.”
“Oh, Lordy, what do you mean, Mr. Jack? What are you going to do to me?” Molly Bashe exclaimed, glancing at her friend in the chair of treachery.
Inwardly, I could hardly suppress my delighted amusement at the consummate artistry this pretty brunette was now displaying. Yes, I had completely misjudged her that afternoon in the Snuggery when I had initiated her into the mystic rites of Cythera. The little minx had evidently acquired a gluttonous taste for more of the same, and I was assuredly in the mood to nurture her newly acquired appetites to the very limit of my power!
I was, of course, in no hurry whatsoever. Foremost in my mind was the problem of what pretext to use to condemn Miss Julia Denton to this very same punishment and execution of it, although the delicious Molly had already slyly intimated to me that her companion was secretly yearning to be forced. But I decided to play the tune by ear and to discover what subtle and newly rewarding harmonies would come from it as Molly Bashe reacted to each minute progression of her “punishment.”
But I now addressed myself to Miss Julia Denton, whose flashing eyes, heaving bosom, and delightfully flushed color indicated that she was overwhelmed by my unexpected tactics towards her friend. “The lesson which you are about to see, Miss Denton,” I now expatiated, “is one that every pretentious girl should learn so that she will not make the error of riding roughshod over the males of this world, who are bound by our smugly conventional code to be gentlemen at all times. There are occasions, Miss Denton, when a gentleman is heartily disgusted at having to be such and would far rather revert to the one honest, candid and I may say-instinctive kind of behavior which impels him most sincerely and honestly… by that I mean, by acting like a man of parts and of virility and full mastery over the justly weaker sex.”
“I demand that you release me at once from this abominable chair, and you’d better let Molly go, unless you want dire consequences!” was Julia Denton’s panting reply.
There would be dire consequences indeed-but they would rebound against the irritated Miss Denton herself. For the time being, however, she would just have to wait her turn, for in all fairness I was obliged to commence with her lovely brunette companion Miss Molly Bashe, the scheming architect of this ingenious reunion. And to that end, I meant to proceed at once.
Chapter 5
And so I regarded Julia Denton with a mocking little smile as I replied to her last indignant commentary with one of my own, which I trusted would consternate her: “You are in no position to demand anything, Miss Denton. But may I suggest that you watch very closely and see how I am about to proceed to the chastisement of your overbearing friend.”
“Chastisement? Surely you are jesting, sir! You could not dream of offering either of us any harm, unless you are rash enough to wish to be imprisoned for your folly!” gasped the delicious captive in my chair of treachery, horrified.
“I shall take my chances, but I am afraid that Miss Molly will certainly have to take hers first,” was my taunting reply as I now strode toward the enticing brunette whose wrists had been hoisted by the rope and who was now completely at my mercy.
Molly Bashe was wearing a charming green frock whose bodice was quite tight, considering the amplitude of her magnificent young bosom. The skirts were very modestly long, down to her trim ankles, yet I could see that they were sheathed in brown clockwork silk hose, and the thought of where they ended and what treasures they caressed made my prick begin to throb with-renewed zeal, remembering also that it had not had solace in quite some little while. I stood facing the delicious brunette, who played her role surprisingly well, for she tried to fling herself back from the ropes which bound her wrists and tractioned her virtually on tiptoe, crying out, “Ohh, what are you going to do, Mr. Jack? For heaven’s sake, do let me down, these ropes hurt my wrists dreadfully, please, sir!”
“I shall not let you down until you have been properly repaid for your naughtiness toward me, Miss Molly,” I sternly replied. I turned now to a little tabouret to my tight and retrieved a pair of shears which were lying on its top in readiness. Armed with this weapon, I now proceeded to go behind her and to snip the garment’s arms away, taking pains not to touch her finely grained skin during the operation. She shrieked and twisted herself this way and
