But the dressing up was not finished. It was completed by pink silk cami-knickers which the girl had to slip on over her stays. They, too, had been shortened and tightened by Bridget and moulded narrowly all the contours of her body stopping just underneath the knees.
Then the girl put on a white silk blouse and a very tight black skirt closed in front from top to bottom by a row of buttons.
'I hope,' the governess mocked,' that you feel well disciplined in your clothes. Wearing very tight clothes is the best way to peg down your excessive pride.'
She walked up to her victim.
'Put your hands behind your back!' she snapped.
Mabel, trembling, obeyed and Dorothea put the girl's palms together and tied them up with a string.
'You will always have your hands tied,' she ordered, 'except when I need you for some domestic work. You must get used no longer to have any personal initiative and to be only a machine that carries out my orders when and the way I want to'.
She then saw that Mabel seemed to be ill-at-ease and that she was moving from one foot to the other.
'Well, what's the matter with you, what are you dancing about?'
'Excuse me, Mistress,' the girl said awkwardly, 'but I would like to… I need to go to…'
'To what? Explain yourself clearly!'
'To the toilet,' the girl said, blushing.
During the time she had been a free girl, she had always hated mentioning such things. An extreme modesty paralysed anything that concerned these bodily needs.
But Dorothea was not such a prude.
'To pee, or for something else?' she asked.
'Both, Mistress!'
'How many times a day do you usually go to the toilet?'
Blushing hard, the girl thought for a moment.
'About six or seven times, Mistress,' she answered.
'Well, from now on, you shall go only twice, once in the morning and once in the evening. It's an excellent exercise of discipline for a girl being re-educated to have a physical need she is not allowed to satisfy. Every morning and evening, when you feel the need coming, you will ask Bridget very politely. If she deems it necessary, she will then give you her permission and accompany you to watch the operation. For this time I advise you to have patience for you will be allowed to go only in about an hour or two.'
Those words left Mabel dumbfounded and even appalled. The idea that her governess should control even those things revolted her deeply. In spite of her submission and the fear of the whip she was about to revolt and insult her torturer. But, once more, the fear of the consequences made her keep silent.
Miss von Berner had gone out for a while. She came back holding three huge photos. They were three pictures of herself — one whole-length, in a suggestive bathing-suit which moulded her sculptural body, the second one in riding-trousers and with a riding-crop in her hand; the third was a larger-than-life portrait where Dorothea appeared very beautiful, with a cruel and domineering expression and the steely glint of her eyes. She placed the three photos on the cupboard and laid before them a horse-whip and a dog-whip.
'From now on,' she said, 'these photos will remain in your room and I want you to learn to contemplate them with respect and adoration, for not only I want you to fear me, but also to love me, with a vile grovelling love-the love of a slave for her mistress, the all-mighty one. Now your future schedule will be this (until you become a well-trained save): it will begin with one hour of worship and prayers. You will kneel in front of my photos and, while you lean towards me, you will pray God that He give you a supple and docile soul and that He should help you atone for your faults and the insolence of your past life. You will pray to me, too, for you must get it into your head that I am all and you are nothing. Yes, I know, you won't have much thoughts in the first days, but, thanks to my education, there will come the moment when your adoration for me will be natural and genuine and you will pray to me as to a goddess without my having to order you to do so.'
Mabel listened to her with awe and fright. She wondered whether the governess was insane and whether her folly would gradually gain in upon her. She read in the eyes of the beautiful Dorothea a kind of sadistic expression which acted upon her like a mysterious magnet. Almost mechanically she knelt down in front of the photographs.
'I shall leave you to your worship,' Dorothea went on. 'If you have moved but half an inch when I come back, you shall be cruelly punished. And try to hold back the need you mentioned just now because Bridget, before leading you to the toilet, will inspect your underclothes, and if ever they are found to be damp you will be whipped till blood comes!'
Miss von Berner beckoned to Bridget and both women left the room, locking it up behind them.
When she was alone, Mabel believed she would stifle with rage, humiliation and despair. But what could she do? There she was, with her hands tied behind her back, kneeling like the most abject of slaves. She felt, all along her body, the corset that squeezed her under her skirt, and her legs and thighs were likewise imprisoned. These terrible stays were cutting into her skin and the too narrow panties, made narrower still by the leather strap, bit into her tender flesh.
She was about to cry and sob to calm her despair. Then she thought about the two different whips in front of her eyes, which seemed to have eyes of their own to witness her undignified position, and also the three photographs or her domineering mistress which fascinated her with the gleaming expression of her steely-grey eyes and with the sensual power of her beautiful body.
Her physical need tortured her. The thought that she would not be able to satisfy it without Bridget's permission was driving her crazy. She was about to let go and drop everything in her panties, but the shame and the fear of the punishment obliged her to control herself.
It seemed impossible that so many obligations and constraints should not bring Mabel to rebellion. The girl gnashed her teeth and her eyes were brimful of tears. It was too much — better be dead than reduced to such an abject state.
Thus an hour passed, an awful hour which saw now the despair now the revolt of the poor girl.
Then Bridget came in. She had a mocking expression on her face and she walked up to her victim in a wiggling movement.
'Well slave, still have your need?' she asked.
Her assurance and haughtiness were stronger than Mabel's pride.
'Yes, Your Ladyship,' she said, casting down her eyes.
'And, no doubt, you would like me to take you to the toilet?'
'Yea, Your Ladyship''
'Maybe,' Bridget said with cruelty, 'we'll see if you deserve it. Get up!'
Painfully, the girl stood up.
'You haven't wetted your drawers, have you?' the maid asked.
'No, Your Ladyship.'
'We shall see.'
With slow movements, Bridget lifted Mabel's skirt and cami-knickers. She undid the strap in front. Then she crouched down and inspected with care the girl's drawers at the precise spot in which her femininity was slightly bulging under the adhering material. The maid, with malicious pleasure, even put her hand to it, palpating the fruit of love a long while to make perfectly sure there was no dampness. Mabel's shame was immense to feel herself being touched thus without her being able to prevent it.
At last Bridget appeared satisfied with her check.
'All right,' she said, 'you've been a good girl. Walk in front of me!'
She had taken a horsewhip with her and gave little strokes with in on the girls calves to make her walk more quickly. She made her go into the water closet and locked herself up with her. There, she again lifted up the skirt and underskirt of her captive and untied her hands.
'Down with your panties!' she ordered, 'undo them.'
That was not easy at all, for Mabel had the forty buttons which tied her drawers to hooks on her stays. In spite of her haste, she was given a violent stroke of the whip on her breasts to punish her for being too slow.
Having at last taken off her panties, the girl had then to hold up her skirts and sit on the seat under the
