without pity, while I had to do my utmost to make no sound.
With eyes dilated by pain, I followed the progress of the wretched garment which, in spite of all difficulties, was actually beginning to climb my thighs like a thick black snake.
At last, it was accomplished! The sensation of being so compressed was far from agreeable. They had even been obliged to powder the interior of the garment to permit it to be drawn over my body, clammy with pain and fear. It was now only a question of buttoning the jacket. It was fastened diagonally by mother-o'-pearl buttons which began at the left shoulder and ended at the right hip. It was an even more difficult matter than the fastening of the drawers and infinitely more painful. The fixing of the very first button was terrible.
My skin had become caught between the button and the button-hole, and in spite of this, the malicious fingers of Mrs. Eagle did their best to complete the buttoning, skin and all. I writhed with pain and she had to struggle anew at her task, though not before administering me a vigorous thump on my head with her heavy hand. I began to moan and weep softly
Lady Flayskin again intervened.
'Why do you strike him?'
'He uses all his efforts to get away. The button was just going in when he shifted again, little brute that he is! It's no easy task to dress such a child.'
'Because you are clumsy, I repeat. Since he shows a disposition to resist you, his new drawers shall be christened by a good flogging with the horsewhip.'
I joined my hands together and burst into sobs. Hiltherto I had only been birched. The horsewhip appeared much more horrible.
Lady Flayskin took no notice of my pantomime of despair. She merely thrust Mrs. Eagle aside and remarked coldly:
'Give me your place. As you are unable to dress him I will do it myself.'
The under-mistress did not dare to make the least objection, but she gave me a covert glance of malice which boded ill for me as soon as I should be again alone with her.
Lady Flayskin had not been incorrect in styling the under-mistress as clumsy. She herself made proof of incredible dexterity.
Seizing the button firmly, she put it into the button-hole without pinching my skin at all. Still the pain she gave me was extreme. She had no thought for my feelings as she compressed my little chest and I could scarcely breathe. It seemed to me that my sufferings would never end except at the expense of crushed ribs. Fear of the whip, however, made me control my feelings as well as I could, although I had but faint hopes of being let off the promised punishment.
Meanwhile the young ladies with their wasplike waists had undressed in accordance with the order given them by terrible Lady Flayskin.
They had first of all drawn off their long, black kid gloves, hanging them with extreme care upon the backs of their chairs, in such a way that no pair hung lower than another by so much as a fraction of an inch. To this points the directress, who attached extreme importance to details, paid vigilant attention. Then, still in an orderly methodical manner, they had taken off their dresses. This was an easy matter, but it was otherwise when the corset had to be removed, a terrible and painful undertaking. The three unfortunate girls had their stomachs so compressed that it was impossible to make them recede farther. To takeoff their corsets appeared to be a task even more beyond their powers than that of putting them on. The stiffening whalebones appeared inseparable from their flesh, and it seemed impossible to remove the stays without at the same time removing the skin of the wearers. With heads thrown back, pale as death, they struggled until their active fingers became numbed and for just a moment, they paused. The cutting voice of Lady Flayskin immediately reproved their idleness. They therefore recommenced their seemingly impossible task. At length, one of them succeeded in undoing a hook and the corset at once came together yet tighter at the top, compressing her breasts with such violence that overcome by her sufferings she almost fell to the ground. She continued her efforts in spite of all, eager to gain a little respite from the awful compression, even at the expense of the whipping which the directress had announced would follow the performance of her task. At length, with a groaning sigh, she managed to detach the corset entirely from her body. She held it at arm's length and with the other hand, she energetically rubbed her back to relieve the unendurable irritation.
All three were now undressed. Their sumptuous clothes were laid out in orderly fashion and each pair of boots was placed neatly in front of a chair. I was stupefied at the sight of those boots. My own, at which I had so bitterly grumbled, were not to be compared with these. Their tips were varnished and the leather was picked out in white stitching which showed up effectively on the dark ground. The heels were, of course, very high, and cut away to an extraordinary extent. Indeed 97
the foot when encased seemed almost in a line with the leg. The length, however, of the boots was exaggerated and the toes tapered to a very small point. They mounted high up the leg, as far as the calf which in these three young ladies was situated very high up. This is, I am told, an undoubted sign of aristocratic birth.
Whether aristocratic or not, the lines of their figures were very graceful, and perhaps this was entirely due to the efforts of Lady Flayskin
Young as I was, and incompetent therefore to criticise feminine beauty, these excessively slender waists struck me as ridiculous, more especially in the case of the second sister whose body filled and stretched her 'combination' almost to bursting point. She was a perfect ball of a girl. Her breasts were large and natur ally very firm, for she was fifteen years old. Her stomach, freed now from the compression of the corset, but squeezed by the, leather garment, was nevertheless able to take its natural somewhat protruding position. In short, her general appearance with her large shoulders and arms, as big as those of Mrs. Eagle, her thick legs and thighs and swelling calves, formed a striking contrast with the small narrow waist, the latter seem ing to be a slender isthmus uniting the two voluminous peninsulars of the breast and the vast fat chest with the monstrous hinder parts and hips. It is to be supposed that Lady Flayskin's opinion and my own were not the same on this subject, and I was careful not to express my thoughts aloud. I am of this opinion because I noticed the look of satisfaction bestowed by the head mistress upon the three young ladies now clothed so summarily in their tight-fitting black kid combinations. Possibly the mistress's eye shone most as it surveyed the stout chubby cheeked girl who formed such a contrast with her slender sisters. They stood in a row, as modestly as they could, although the scanty nature of their cos tume was such as to reveal with a near approach to indecency, rather than to conceal the exact shape of the lassies wearing it. They awaited the pleasure of their directress who was occupied in martyrising me by buttoning the horrible combination. She did not spare me a single button's agony. At length her task was completed. The horrible garment was buttoned up. Its coldness struck ice into my bones; it seemed to choke my heart and lungs struggling vainly to resist the attack upon their natural freedom. It is needless to enquire if I was in dire distress. I suffered even more in mind than in body. The directress ordered me to remove my stockings and my pains were increased, for upon trying to lean forward to obey her, this leather corset, at once so supple and so inflexible, resisted all my efforts. I stooped to the right and then to the left with no more success in one direction than in another. Fearintensified my discomfort, as the direct ress laughed, watching my sterile efforts to obey her.
Being unable to lean forward, I tried to go on my knees.
The horrible tightness of the drawers impeded all movements. My back seemed paralysed and I had the notion, no doubt only imaginary, that the garment was splitting.
If it had really split, how terrible would have been my punishment!
At last, moving my arms in order to ease my shoulders, I succeeded in making these stockings, which I was told to remove, descend a little way. Seeing then clearly that I should never succeed in my task by the employment of hands alone, I adopted another method. I put one foot upon the other, and then by with drawing the one which was beneath, endea voured to pull off the stocking at the same time.
The directress said nothing on seeing my fresh device for doing her bidding, but took up a heavy horsewhip from the mantlepiece.
At that moment, though I do not know how I contrived it, I succeeded in raising one foot up to the height of my hand on the same side, and in grasping and removing the stocking; and, as by miracle, I succeeded with the other stocking too.
My costume was now exactly similar to that of the three young ladies, for I wore nothing but the ridiculous combination, formed of a single piece. Chest and thighs were bare, stained with the black of the glazed kid which had effectually left its mark upon my white skin.
