When my boots had been removed, I was about to take off my long cotton stocking, but she authoritatively intervened:
'No! No! Keep them on! They will not be at all in the way.'
She again took up the kid garment that she had laid upon the back of a chair, when about to undress me. It was a garment of a soft yielding appearance which appeared to me to be much too tight for my body. It was at the same time a sort of vest buttoning up at the side with mother-o'-pearl buttons, and a pair of drawers of most slender proportions.
The stockings certainly did not prove to be in the way. But after the legs of the drawers had been pulled up over my slender calves – as thin and wiry as a stag's – they refused to mount my thighs.
Lady Flayskin pulled. I stretched out my legs making them as stiff as possible. In spite of myself, I could not help bending my knees, so violent was the strain put upon them by the pulling. Then the wrathful voice of my lady made me tremble.
'Will you be so good as to sit quiet, Alice? You are behaving badly on purpose, you bad boy! If you begin again you shall taste the whip before leaving this room.'
Her threat did not strenghten my powers of resistance. My legs bent again, weak with fear. With compressed lips and furious eyes, Lady Flayskin regarded me in silence. She had abandoned her efforts. Happily for me a diversion took place at this critical moment.
A knock was heard at the door.
It was Mrs. Eagle, the stout under-mistress, leading into the room, in response to my lady's 'Come in!' the three sisters, the pride of the 85
establishment. I have already spoken of these three young ladies and of their waists, whose slenderness was due to the discipline of the corset as prescribed by Lady Flayskin.
My lady looked as them with pride and contentment. Her ill-humour immediately vanished. She forgot it at the sight of her favourite pupils and told Mrs. Eagle to see to the completion of my dressing.
The three girls, perfect mannequins as regarded their proportions, stood modestly together. The eldest was now sixteen years old, with a transparent complexion and feverish eyes. At the sight of her waist, people wondered how she could move without breaking into two pieces. Her waist was quite round and the appearance of slimness was thus accentuated. It was certainly not more than fifteen inches round. Her shoulders were lamentably narrow, but nevertheless appeared broad and finely proportioned by contrast with her slender waist.
The younger sister was my lady's triumph, the stout child who was now fifteen years of age. When first brought to the school, she seemed about to become elephantine. Her 86
appetite however, was not unusually large. It seemed that everything she ate nourished her, turning to fat and muscle, yet Lady Flasykin showed no disposition to oppose this corpulency. She proscribed neither potatoes nor pastry, and the lass might take as much farinaceous food as she wished. I may say that as regards food, we were as well treated as the most exacting parents could have required. This was fitting in an establishment which in its way was extremely luxurious and certainly very expensive. I do not think that in the whole of England could have been found an educational establishment whose terms were higher. We certainly had excellent and abundant food, good cooking, together with encouragement to satisfy our appetites on the part of the teacher. The young lady of whom I am telling you had profited thereby. She ate everything and asked for more, being no different in this respect from some of the other pupils. Big appetites in this establishment were not exceptional, the girls being some of them as hearty eaters as the boys.
While placing no obstacle to the girl's increasing corpulency, for the neck, shoulders, arms and legs were becoming of monstrous proportions, Lady Flayskin was careful to see to the diminishing of the waist measure by the continual and judicious employment of suitable corsets.
The result was extraordinary.
It seemed impossible that this child, whose chest was compressed and whose stomach was tightly girded night and day, could digest food and continue to grow fat. Yet such was the case. Her disposition was cheerful; ever ready for a joke and a laugh, she was always a source of jesting among her companions who loved her for her gaiety. Sometimes her laughter would terminate in a painful grimace. The inexorable corset was unfavourably disposed to an excess of laughter and made its wearer pay for liberties. It refused to yield so much as half an inch. But the moment of pain would pass and the young girl would become again as lighthearted as ever.
She was of the same height as her elder sister who, as I have just related, was exceedingly tall and seemed even taller on account of her slenderness. The height of the second sister, by reason of her stoutness, appeared less remarkable. The youngest sister was as thin and tall as the eldest, but her frame was even more delicate, while a look of unspeakable sadness veiled the blue depths of her eyes.
Lady Flayskin had punished all three of them, for some childish fault or for no fault at all. Had all been gulity at the same time it would indeed have been strange. The notion of a plot was impossible in this establishment, even in the case of sisters. The discipline of the corset not only brought about a reduction of the waist but also reduced initiative and courage. No one of the girls or boys who were educated in the academy would have dared to conceal anything from the mistresses. The fear of the whip, too, was an added incentive to constant and cringing submission.
If one of the pupils had thought of carrying out some plot, no matter how innocent might have been the projected escapade, it is certain that one of those led into the secret whether boy or girl, would have done their best to swiftly master all the details in order to reveal the whole matter to one of the mistresses wihtout delay.
Lady Flayskin, when in humour to punish, did not require a peccadillo to be necessarily committed by the selected victim. She herself imagined the fault and the victim experienced the whip. She always contrived to give an appearance of justice to her wrath. Her hypocrisy was unbounded. There was no appeal from her judgments and any attempt to gain a hearing brought added punishment as the result of such imprudence.
The three sisters stood in a row, very erect, the head well up and the neck stretched as high as possible. The leather collar which was occasionally worn by the other pupils was always worn by these three girls, except when outside the school walls, when habit enabled them to hold up their heads stiffly. They frequently went out walking and visiting and were always accompanied by Lady Flayskin herself. I learnt the meaning of these exhibitions later. The four of them would go to parties in the best London society. Apart from ladies of the most aristocratic exclusiveness, there would be politicians of grave and austere mien, merchant princes, judges, all men of note and position, and they would, men or women alike, behave to these unfortunate girls with nameless barbarity. These people were the friends of the directress of the school. Beneath an exterior ef austere morality, all concealed the most vicious instincts. After an elegant dinner, followed by some equally good music or perhaps by a dance, in fact after an evening spent in a fashion customary in all good society, an orgy ensued. This would begin by admiring the 'Wasps,' as the sisters were called on account of the extraordinary smallness of their waists. Conversation regarding their figures would follow. Then a desire would be expressed to see and handle. After many apparent refusals, Lady Flayskin, liking people to beg her favours, and who wished to make the projected entertainment last longer, would tell the girls to undress. The men would then exert their biceps to the utmost and would endeavour to lace the stays yet tighter. If, as almost invariably happened, the girls fainted, the whip would arouse them from their swoon.
At the moment of which I am writing, they were doing their best to smile at Lady Flayskin whose pleasure they were awaiting.
The directress, preferring to leave them in the distress of their uncertainty, turned to me and found me toiling with the nameless 'combination' which was at the same time drawers and jacket, of kid throughout.
Mrs. Eagle was employing all her strength in the attempt to make the legs of the drawers mount my thighs. The savage fingers of this stout woman pinched the leather and me indifferently. I cried. Lady Flayskin looked at me tenderly and I began to sob. Whether purposely, as is more probable, or through carelessness, these abominable drawers had been made a great deal too tight. It is true my gloves were tight also. They yielded a little, though far from sufficiently for comfort. As to Mrs. Eagle, that lady was as red as a tomato and perspired and puffed while becoming more impatient. Nor were her feelings calmed by Lady Flayskin who watched her with compressed lips and who twice or thrice had coldly remarked:
'Not like that! Ah! my poor Mrs Eagle, I thought you had more skill!'
The under-mistress, irritated by observations to which she dared not reply, continued her efforts with even more violence and avenged herself on my skin. Her thick, strong ringers would seize and pinch a piece of my skin
