Trembling, Miss Sun way went into her mistress's room. It was a vast room, luxuriously furnished and cluttered with precious gewgaws. Silk dresses and underclothes were scattered on some pieces of furniture. Dorothea von Berner, sitting in front of her dressing-gown of black lace under which could be seen some patches of white flesh. She was not wearing any glasses and Mabel could not help noticing how beautiful she was.
'On her, Bridget!' Miss von Berner said at last.
'Make her kneel in a corner and keep an eye. I shall deal with her in a while. For the moment, I have my make up to attend to.'
During a long; quarter of an hour, Mabel had to wait on her knees, under the severe look of Bridget, until the governess deigned to give her her attention. At last Dorothea stood up and walked up to her victim with a flow and voluptuous step.
'Well, have you decided to be submissive and obedient?'
'Yes.'
'Have you understood that your revolts would be of no use and that you are now under my discipline, and that you are but a naughty girl atoning for her past and being re-educated?'
'Yes.'
Mabel kept her head down, not daring look up into the face of the governess. She saw only her small feet shod in dainty shoes, and the hem of her perfumed dressing-gown which was caressing her face.
'To-morrow,' the governess went on, 'your first day of discipline will begin, but before that I shall give you a whole night in order to recuperate your forces. You will be locked up in your room and Bridget will bring you a hearty meal. Ton will have a bat hand cure your behind with some salve which you will find on your bed-table, and you will sleep. To-morrow we shall see if your obedience is genuine and your submission total. Take her away, Bridget!'
Very humiliated, Mabel got up and followed the maid up to her own sleeping-room. Bridget brought up to her a tray containing a copious meal and withdrew after having locked up the door giving on to the passage, as well as the one which communicated with the room of the governess. Dazed with weariness and suffering and with her brain completely empty of thoughts the girl went, to the bathroom, where she took a warm perfumed bath that acted like a balm.
Back in her room, she examined in a mirror her behind and nearly uttered a cry of horror when she saw its state — it was all crimson and streaked with red and bleeding lashes, and bluish with bruises in some ports. Alas, where was her pretty behind of yesterday which was her pride, so white, soft and plump? The girl almost cried at the sight of such a disaster. It took her more than an hour to apply salve with care and rub it in smoothly, and it relieved her pain a lot.
As she was looking for pyjamas, she saw that nearly all her clothes had been removed from the cupboards and that her room had been cleared of all its unnecessary objects — the gewgaws, her gramophone, her cigarettes, the handbag into which she put her money, all that had disappeared. As for the cupboards and dressers containing her dresses and skirts, they were locked.
She managed to find a pyjama in pink silk and a pair of panties which she padded with cotton wool. It made her behind look oddly bumpy. Having donned her pyjamas, she ate voraciously the meal that had been prepared for her and at last, broken up by sleep and suffering, she went to bed.
In her bed, she wept in big sobs like a child, then weariness had the better of her and she sank into a deep sleep, agitated now and then by long nervous shudders.
CHAPTER 3
The following morning, Mabel was awakened by Bridget who entered her room at seven sharp. Of course, the maid had come in without knocking and looked very bold and insolent.
She walked up to the girl's bed end briskly removed all the blankets and sheets.
'Get up, slave, and quicker than that!' she ordered.
Mabel's first reaction was to revolt — she was still half asleep.
'I won't allow this way of treating me, she said.
'Slap' went Bridget's hand on her cheek.
'You don't have to allow this or that!' Bridget admonished. 'From now on you are a slave and nothing else. Miss von Berner said you had to obey, so you'd better get up unless you want me to got the horsewhip.'
That argument was very convincing and beat down the girl's resistance, for she still had the smarting remembrance of yesterday's punishment.
So she got up abruptly in spite of the, pain still vivid on her buttocks and stood awkwardly in front of the maid, intimidated and not knowing what to do next.
'You are not to wash before the governess says so. You'll just comb your hair and put some make up on to appear presentable when your mistress comes to visit you. And you will have to be completely naked when she comes in, understand?'
As Mabel was not answering Bridget slapped her face again.
'Answer 'Yes, ma'am'!'
'Yes, ma'am.'
'All right, slave, do as I told you!'
The maid left the room without looking back and Mabel began to understand with dismay how humiliating her life was going to be, from now on. But, heedful not to be punished again she did as she was ordered. She combed her hair and made up her face, then she took off her pyjamas and her padded panties. She looked at her behind in the mirror and was surprised to find that the swelling and the bruises had vanished; Thanks to Miss von Berner's miraculous salve her behind had resumed its normal aspect, although there still remained a trace of the beatings in the way of a rosy hue crisscrossed by reddish weals.
Mabel's intention was to remain naked as she had been ordered to but suddenly a kind of shame took hold of her. For all her modern and bold outlook on life, she still remained a modest girl in that she would never show her naked body. So, nearly instinctively, she took a dressing-gown and wrapped her body in it. Then she sat on the edge of the bed with her heart beating hard with the fear of the consequences her disobedience would entail.
Dorothea von Berner went into the room and Mabel stood up suddenly and walked back against the far wall, just like a lion in front of its tamer, and she fixed the governess with wide-open eyes. She could not help noticing again how wonderfully beautiful she was.
Dorothea was already coiffured and made up with care. Her mouth, daubed with lipstick, had taken up an evil expression. Behind her tortoise-shell glasses her steely eyes sparkled vividly. She was dressed in a Japanese kimono and round her waist there was a varnished leather belt. She did not seem to be wearing anything underneath. Her beautiful sun-tanned legs were likewise bare; as for her feet, they were shod in high-heeled red slippers.
Mabel noticed with fright that the governess was holding a horsewhip in her hand and that she was tapping the end of it nervously against her slippers.
Looking at Mabel fixedly, the attractive governess walked slowly up to her.
'A slave should get down on her knees,' she said briskly, 'when her mistress does her the honour of entering her room. From now on, if you forget to do so you will get ten lashes on your breasts. I condescend not to punish you for this once since you didn't know. Go on, bitch, on your knees!'
Tamed, more dead than alive, the pretty English girl slipped to the floor on her knees.
'Kiss my feet in submission!'
Forgetting her pride and shame, Mabel bent down and placed her trembling lips on the varnished slippers before her.
Dorothea turned round her victim and examined her with attention.
'If I am not mistaken, you were ordered to appear naked before me. Why haven't you obeyed?
'I don't know,' the girl whispered bashfully.
The governess slapped her face violently.
'Be polite and answer 'I don't know, Mistress.''
