nearly all his fortune. A portion of this money I now staked, thinking that the luck could not possibly go against me again, but it did. I was rendered desperate. Again I proposed to double — it would take all I had left if I lost.
The ladies who were playing withdrew; the gentlemen were too polite to do so. The cards went against me. I felt myself turn dreadfully pale. The French ambassador, Count Henri, who was sitting beside me, was disposed to conceal my terrible embarrassment. He was a handsome man, but, unlike my husband, he was very stalwart. His manners were very engaging. He kept up a stream of small talk till the others had dispersed to other parts of the room, then he offered to bring me on the morrow the amount I had lost.
I turned as crimson as I had before been pale. I knew the price of such assistance. I made him no reply, my look dropped to the floor and I begged him to leave me, which he politely did. All next day I was nearly distracted; I hoped Count Henri would not come. My cheeks would burn as on the evening before and the blood all rush back to my heart.
At three o'clock he came; the valet showed him into the parlour, closed the door and retired. Count Henri must have known he was expected, for I was elegantly dressed in blue silk and my shoulders were set off with heavy lace. I was so weak from agitation that I could not rise from the sofa to greet him.
'May I have the happiness,' he said, 'of being your confidant?' as he seated himself beside me, holding in one hand a well-filled purse and dropping the other around my waist. I could not reject the purse. If I kept the purse I could not ask him to remove his arm. I was giddy with contending emotions.
'For God's sake, spare me,' l murmured. My head dropped, he caught it to his heart — I had fainted away.
When I again became conscious I was lying on my back upon the sofa in the arms of the Count, the lace on my bosom was parted, my heavy skirts were all turned up from my naked thighs and he was in the very ecstasy of filling my sheath with sperm.
It was this exquisite sensation which had restored me to consciousness, but I was too late to join in the ecstasy. His shaft became limber and small and I was left hopelessly in the lurch. Then I beseeched him to go as it was no time or place for this.
'Will you receive me in your bedroom tonight?' asked the Count, kissing my bare bosoms.
He had so excited my passions that I no longer hesitated. 'The front door will be unfastened all night,' I replied, 'and my room is directly over this.'
Then he allowed me to rise. I adjusted my disordered dress as quickly as possible, but I was not quick enough. The valet opened the door to bring in the card of a visitor. He saw enough to put me in his power.
After the Count had gone I found the purse in my bosom; it contained more than I had lost, but my thoughts were not of money. My lips had tasted the forbidden fruit; I was no longer the same woman; my excitement had culminated in lascivious desire. I could hardly wait for night to come.
When finally the house was still I unfastened the front door, retired to my room, undressed and was standing in my chemise with my nightgown in my hand ready to put on when the door of my room opened and Alex, the valet, stood before me with his finger on his lips. He was a fine looking youth of seventeen, a Hungarian of a reduced family, who acted half in the capacity of secretary and half in that of valet for my husband. I could not help giving a faint scream, while I concealed my person as well as possible with the nightgown I held in my hands.
'My lady,' said he, 'I know all, but I shall be discreet. I only ask you to give me the sweetest proof of your confidence.'
There was no help for it. With a murmured 'For shame,' I sprang into bed and hid under the bedclothes. He quickly undressed and followed me. My object was to dismiss him before the Count came; I therefore suffered him to make rapid progress. He took me in his arms and kissed my lips and breasts and, as he raised my chemise, our naked thighs met. He was much more agitated than myself. I had been anticipating a paramour all the afternoon and he could not have known what reception would be accorded him. He could hardly guide his shaft to the lips that welcomed it.
As for myself, I began where I had left off with the Count. My sheath with wanton greediness devoured every inch that entered it and at the very first thrust I melted with an adulterous rapture never felt in my husband's embrace. Just at that moment I heard the front door softly open and shut. I pushed Alex away with force that drew his stiff shaft completely out of me.
'Gather up your clothes quickly and get into the closet,' I said. Madly eager as he must have been to finish, he hurried with his clothes into the closet as the Count entered.
The Count came up and kissed me. I pretended to be asleep. He undressed hastily, and, getting into bed, took me in his arms. But I delayed his progress as much as possible. I made him tell me everything that had been said about my losses at cards. I used every artifice to keep him at bay until his efforts should arouse my passions.
Then he mounted me and his stalwart shaft distended and penetrated me so much deeper than that of young Alex that it was more exquisite than before. Again the wild, adulterous thrill penetrated every part of my body. I fairly groaned with ecstasy. At that moment the front door loudly opened. It must be my husband unexpectedly returning.
'Good heavens, Count!' I cried, 'under the bed with you.' He pulled his great stiff shaft out of me with a curse of disappointment that he could not finish and scrambled under the bed, dragging his clothes after him.
My husband came in all beaming with delight that he had been able to return so soon. I received him with much demonstration. 'How it flushes your cheeks to see me,' he said.
When he had undressed and come to bed I returned his caresses with so much ardour that he soon entered where Alex and the Count had so hastily withdrawn. I felt pleasant, but feigned much more rapture than I felt.
To console the Count I dropped one of my hands down alongside the bed, which he was so polite as to kiss, and, as my husband's face was buried in my neck, while he was making rapid thrusts I kissed my other hand to Alex, who was peeping through the closet door. Then I gave a motion to my loins which sent my husband spending and repeated it till I had extracted from him the most copious gushes. It was too soon for me to melt with another thrill; my object was to fix him for a sound sleep, but the balmy sperm was so grateful to my hot sheath after the two fierce preceding encounters that I felt rewarded for my troubles.
He soon fell sound asleep. Then I motioned for the Count to go. With his clothes in one hand and his stiff shaft in the other he glided out. Soon after, we heard the front door shut and the disconsolate Alex cautiously came forth. With his clothes under his arm and both hands holding his rigid shaft, he too disappeared.
Here Helene finished. During her story I lay on my back with my head resting on Inez's bosom. Helene sat astride my loins with her face towards me, which gave me a fair view of her most secret charms. She somehow or other let the scarf fall over her thighs and beneath it her little tapering fingers began to play with my limber shaft.
As the story proceeded it began to stiffen, and while she was describing the bedchamber scene she contrived to enter it into the crevice so directly above it. It rose and rose until it was almost rigid, vivified as it was by the close retreat in which it was hidden. She kept undulating her loins as the story went on till, just as she finished, I was nearly ready to spend. At the same moment I felt my shaft moistened with the moisture of the pretty Greek girl and she fell fainting in the arms of a lady close by.
My shaft drew out of her with a sucking noise which set all laughing. She hurriedly gave the scarf to the lady in whose arms she lay and in whose bosom she held her face.
'It is with you, Zuleika,' they all cried in chorus. Zuleika looked very much embarrassed. About eighteen years of age, she was formed very much like Inez, whom she equalled in height, but she was more muscular and her skin was of a dark bronze.
Her large, lustrous eyes were dark as night. So was her curly hair, which was set off with a snowy turban on which gleamed a crescent of burnished silver. The colour deepened in her dusky cheeks as she timidly began.
CHAPTER FOUR
