looking very imperious in her luxurious girlish beauty, 'just you come here and reply to my questions.'
'Here is a sceptre,' gaily cried Agnes, putting into Beatrice's hand a bundle of fir twigs; and, sitting down beside her with a smiling countenance, she regarded me with a comical expression of mixed solemnity and amusement.
'Kneel down there, Julia, in front of us.'
'I'll tell you,' cried Agnes. 'We'll strip him, tie his hands, and make him sit or lie on the ground between us.'
No sooner said than done. Agnes flew to me, and quickly rid me of all my clothing, notwithstanding my frantic opposition. My cries and protests were unheeded. Agnes grasped me violently while Beatrice quickly divested me of every single garment, and sat upon them.
Agnes then tied my hands behind me with a handkerchief and forced me back, downwards on to the narrow strip of green ground between her and Beatrice who towered over me, holding the rods in her hand.
'So Elise sold you to Maud and she took you to her studio. What did she do to you?'
'She-she-'
'Be quick, Julian!'
'She undressed me.'
Agnes here squeezed me pitilessly in front.
'Oh! Oh! Oh, don't! Oh, don't, Agnes, you hurt!'
'Of course, I do-I intend to.'
'She undressed you?'
'Yes, Mademoiselle came in suddenly and found me.'
'Found you!'
'Ye-ye-yes; found me like this-naked in Maud's room.'
'Oh!' said Agnes; and she leant over me, playing vigorously with me, and gazing into my face.
'Turn him over!' said Beatrice.
A slight struggle accomplished this.
'Now I shall whip your bottom before we go any further for being naked in my sister's room.'
And Beatrice administered a sound flogging with her wretched twigs.
'Now, Master Julian!' said Beatrice, recovering her breath by deep inspirations: 'Please account for the blood on Maud's chemise and on the coverlet of the bed. Oh, yes! I saw both before they went to the wash.'
'No doubt the blood came from you,' continued Beatrice derisively; 'the effects of the flogging Maud gave you, no doubt; but I want to hear it from you yourself.'
I was aghast.
'Concealment is of no use. Confess!'
'Well, Beatrice, Maud wanted me to stand as a model for a statue; and you know you had made me promise I would not do that, and so I resisted and objected and made excuses.'
'And so Maud whipped you; hence the blood, eh?'
'No, Maud began coaxing me and playing with me-'
'Like this?' suggested Agnes, suiting the action to the question.
'Oh, oh, oh, Agnes! Oh, yes!'
'And you slipped your hand underneath her clothes?'
'Yes-no-yes.'
'And then she-'
'She lay on the bed.'
'Yes, and you became a model for a living statue?'
'Yes!' I gasped.
If my hands had not been bound, I should have covered my face with them.
'And you were mine for five years, and gave yourself away?'
'Oh, Beatrice!'
'Now, just tell us how you did it?'
'She-she-lay down.'
'On her back?'
'Yes, on-her-back; and I lay face downwards upon her, with what Agnes has got in her hand inside Maud.'
'You wretch! You beast!' exclaimed Agnes.
'Inside her! Where?'
'Oh, inside-'
'What she pees with?' asked Beatrice sternly, and peremptorily.
'Y-e-s.'
'You monster!' exclaimed Agnes.
'And what next? Did it shoot something into her?'
'I had-had to-she made me-I forced it in, and Maud bled and then-'
'You went into a convulsion?'
'Yes.'
'Very well,' said Beatrice. 'And now, when last I saw this thing, it had not a red head like that, it was covered with skin. What did your governess do to you?'
'She took me to London and had the skin cut off.'
'By whom?'
'By a lady-doctor.'
Agnes was listening intensely.
'This is all a mystery to me,' she observed.
'Let him lie in your lap a minute, Aggy, and I will show you.'
'Oh, no, no, no, I won't. Whatever will Mademoiselle do?'
'Mademoiselle! You are mine, do you forget? Lie on your back, dear.'
Agnes soon rolled over.
'Now, Julian!'
I reluctantly reclined upon her.
'Beg her permission to tickle her with your tongue.'
'Put his head-there! — Between my legs? Oh, Beatrice!' cried Agnes, with a deep flush.
'Yes; he knows the way. Now, Julian!'
I tickled the soft virginal aperture and stiff little clitoris with my tongue until Agnes was almost fainting with pleasure. But before anything happened, Beatrice made me lie upon Agnes; her chemise was between her and myself.
'Now,' said Beatrice, 'Agnes, dear, imagine that that thing you have been amusing yourself with is inside you, inside where he has been kissing you.'
'Oh, how-dreadful!'
'And hold him tightly.' She did so, and Beatrice whipped me gently.
At last the spasm overtook me.
'Oh! Oh! Oh! Julian!' cried Agnes, biting my lips with her pretty mouth.
On examination the chemise was found to be well wetted on both sides.
'There, that is what he did to Maud, only actually inside her. Should he treat our sister as a harlot? 249
'Oh, the wretch! He ought to be hung.'
'As I find your word is not enough, Julian, and your bondage must be more severe, you shall be mine, not for five years or ten, but as long as you live. Mine, body and soul. What a slave I shall make of you! And as you did what you did to Maud in utter disregard to your promise to me I shall not consider you have expiated your offence until you have besought and implored me to let you do it to her again after our marriage, and have gained her assent, and then you shall do it in front of me. I shall tell Maud at the first opportunity and get her to meet us on our honeymoon. There!'
'Now kiss your mistress,' she said, 'and receive your fate; when you are married to me I promise you, you
