creaseless black kid coverings.
It was only a discomfort the more.
Virginia had now no portion of her body at ease. The excessively high heels and tight boots gave her cramping pains in her calves and thighs. Her ribs threatened to crack beneath the corset and now her hands were forced into gloves far too small fort hem. The easy grace of her movements of which she had formerly been so proud, as befitted an English girl of the aristocratic class devoted to out-door sports, where now was that grace?
Lost for long days to come!
So confused had become her mind that this thought come to her but dimly.
What occupied her troubled brain was the feeling of giddiness, the racking persistent headache which seemed to fasten talons of steel into her tortured scalp. Lady Flayskin now thought fit to thrust the girl before her into the class-room, that her schoolfellows might see her new costume.
CHAPTER VII
It was as the head-mistress had predicted. The slender waist of Miss Malville made a sensation. The glory of the 'Three Wasps ' was somewhat dimmed.
On Sunday, at church, the men were transfixed with admiration as they looked at the figures of the schoolgirls, while the women went pale with envy. As for us boys, we too shared in these attentions, as owing to our tight- laced corsets, we were likewise taken for girls. Our modest becoming air, our short little steps, the way we had of keeping our eyes lowered, all these and other outward signs aided the deception.
For the present no one had eyes except for Miss Malville, who, in her person, was the embodiment of all the graces due to the inexorable discipline of our establishment – the stays worn night and day, the high boots with their exaggerated heels, the gloves of glazed kid reaching above the elbow.
Lady Flayskin had likewise made her don the 'combination,' that garment which was bodice and drawers in one, and made of black glazed kid fitting exceedingly tight.
She had been spared the shoulder straps nor had she ever worn the leather collar.
It is true that Virginia carried herself so perfectly upright that these objects would, in her case, have proved absolutely superfluous.
Lady Flayskin was practical before everything. If the carriage of the body was correct, why use artificial aids?
Meanwhile an event of the highest interest took place. It had long been expected and no one was taken by surprise.
One day, the head-mistress announced, in a manner even more ceremonious than that to which we were accustomed, that there would be no school the following day. We were all, boys and girls alike, invited to the wedding of worthy Mr. Gostock with pretty Stella.
The austere, hypocritical old fellow had long meditated this action and his dissimulation had deceived nobody, so true is it that passion always betrays itself. We had one and all expected either a marriage or an elopement and the only thing which surprised us was that one or other of these contingencies had not occured long ago.
Mr. Gostock was almost an old man and he was marrying a girl who had scarcely had time to greet her sixteenth summer.
In our opinion, he was marrying her less for her grace and prettiness then because she would be so good to whip.
There was reason to believe that the pious American revelled in the pastime of flagellation. He was passionately fond of seeing children whipped and was always on the spot at the precise moment when Stella was about to apply the birch to a rebellious posterior. So soon as the 'trussing' of the victim began, he quickly made his way to the best place. Then with eyes which ordinarily seemed dead, mere colourless marble devoid of all expression; and now aflame with a lugubrious light, he literally drank in the scene of suffering. He intoxicated himself with the spectacle, uttering little involuntary yelps of pleasure. There was something repulsive in this greedy satisfaction, and we were terrified and disgusted, though we should have found it difficult to say why, by the sight of him at these moments.
With the natural gaiety of childhood we found that there was more to laugh at than to fear in Mr. Gostock. With great irreverence we would mock his mannerisms and his words. We laughed at his senile passions; his expression of face; and his clothes. Nothing about him escaped our raillery.
His animation always increased as the tears of the victim flowed faster; when the sufferings. became more intense and the cries more piercing.
When the punishment was ended, it was Mr. Gostock's wont to congratulate Stella in pompous language wich was really ridiculous. He always thought it necessary to allude to the decency and high morality of the proceeding. His face would be as red as a tomato and his trembling hands would shift about here, there, and everywhere. He usually found it necessary to toy affectionately with Stella's chin or to else pat her white arms.
There was nothing astonishing, therefore, in his marrying her.
The ceremony was a notable one. We learnt through the gossip of the servants the real reasons of the marriage, together with certain edifying details regarding the married life of this virtuous man.
He was very rich. It was this fact which decided exceedingly good-looking Stella to accept him as husband and to humour his whims. It may be added that the taste for whipping was shared by both.
The coquetry of this child succeeding in securing a man so ripe in years and so free, on account of his wealth, to choose a partner from any country or station in life which took his fancy, would seem very strange, if due account is not taken of a certain prime factor – astute Lady Flayskin.
The head-mistress had planned to join in indissoluble union these two being so admirably suited for one another. She succeeded without difficulty. Stella understood perfectly her ladyship's directions as to what should and what should not be done in her courting of the American.
Never for a moment had she deviated from the rules laid down for her guidance by Lady Flayskin.
She had become skilled, while keeping her air of childish innocence, in whetting the appetites of Mr. Gostock. The cruelty and science of her chastisements made her irresistible in the eyes of her elderly admirer, and she knew further how to stimulate his feelings by her gestures when her punishments were terminated. She would notice by signs he could never dissimulate that his passions were awakened and she would then as though inadvertently, lay a caressing hand upon the rounded spheres in front of her. At such moments, Mr. Gostock had difficulty in containing himself.
We children had discovered many things during nights spent together in the dormitory. We had even reached the stage of rendering one another certain small services in the presence of the under-mistresses and the directress herself, for we had found that such services were a very great relief to the feelings after a painful flogging. We knew the best medicine for poor smarting, itching thighs and the whip always had upon us a certain nervous effect. It was due to this knowledge that we perfectly understood that the actions and gestures of Stella for all her attractive air of a innocence, were only a piquant preface. We were able to follow all the stages of Stella's treatment without difficulty, the American's looks and movements betraying all to our childish but discerning eyes.
This Puritan was a widower.
By his first marriage he had had, and still had a troop of children, the eldest of whom was twelve and the youngest five. He had left them in America in the charge of a woman – a saint as he was wont to say in whom he could repose entire confidence.
Ah! his confidence was well placed! She was in effect a holy woman, after the heart of the respectable Yankee. By her vicious practices, the pious dame had taught bad habits to the three boys. Then, under the pretence of punishing them, she had obliged them to behave in the presence of their father in the manner they behaved when alone. Naturally such seances ended in terrible collective floggings.
During the lifetime of his first wife, Mr. Gostock had had carnal intercourse with this holy woman. She had grown old and Mr. Gostock saw Stella at work and had be come enamoured of the girl. He counted upon her to punish his boys and see to the education of his daughters.
He was not disappointed in his hopes.
As I have already frequently had occasion to remark, everything became known that transpired in the
