shoes.'
'Oh!' I protested. 'I am to be punished twice for the same fault.'
'That is the rule. It teaches pretty young ladies to be careful to avoid punishment altogether.'
She took my instep in her hand and stooped over my feet. My position was, of course, extraordinarily humiliating. But the feel of her gloved hand on my round, warm, silk-stockinged instep, and the sight of her in the mirror as she wrote the punishment I was to endure upon the new white sole of my dainty satin slipper sent a voluptuous thrill through my blood.
'Now stay as you are, Denise, until the ink is dry,' Helen said, and, laying down the pen, she began to adjust my feet. She took great care, with her usual love of neatness, that my ankles were pressed together and my high heels and pointed toes were exactly level.
Miss. Priscilla, meanwhile, squeezed and rolled into a ball a small lace handkerchief that she had been soaking in eau de cologne. She came over to me with the ball in her hand.
'Open your mouth, Denise!'
I obeyed. She thrust the handkerchief into my mouth.
'Close your mouth now, dear!'
The eau de cologne burnt my tongue and the roof of my mouth in the most painful way. Tears filled my eyes.
'Oh, oh!' I cried in a stifled voice, wringing my hands.
Miss. Priscilla smiled at my sufferings.
'The eau de cologne will keep your mouth fresh and sweet, darling,' she said and she took up a bigger handkerchief of the finest silk and carefully folded it. This she adjusted over my lips and tied the end very tightly at the back of my hair, binding my mouth so that I could not utter a sound.
'Now stand up, Denise!' Miss. Priscilla shouted.
I stood up and Miss. Priscilla carefully smoothed down my shining skirt. What a bizarre spectacle met my eyes in the mirror! I saw a grown-up girl in an exquisite evening gown of white satin with her mouth gagged. Her white throat and bosom were flashing with jewels, while her white-gloved hands toyed with a pretty fan. The delicate bows and bright buckles of her luxurious little slippers were peeping out from delicious billows of white tulle.
Of course what made the spectacle so piquant and seductive to me was the knowledge that the pretty girl was myself. My hands were quite free. I could have torn the gag from my lips in a second. There were only two ladies to prevent me. But I did not dare. I was undergoing discipline in girls' frocks and pearl-embroidered satin slippers at their hands. I was being punished by them and in my subjection I felt powerful and lovely.
'Now go downstairs into the drawing room, Denise,' said Helen. 'Our guests will be arriving in a minute.
I was to be seen by her guests in this ignominious condition. The shame of it excited me. I looked piteously at Helen. But there was no sign of relenting in her face. I thought the guests would never recognize me. They would see only Denise a girl. They will witness Denise's submission and then Denise was to disappear forever. I picked up the train of my frock and went sadly out of the room. As I turned to latch the door, I heard Helen ask, 'Well, what do you think?'
And Miss. Priscilla replied, 'In a few weeks he will be the prettiest fetichiste du pied in the world.' And then they both laughed heartlessly.
I was troubled by their words. What was a fetichiste du pied? I had to know. I had an intuition that the phrase was the secret to the riddle, was a clue to the plot those two women had concocted to nullify and ruin me. But I had not time to think about it now. My heels were so high and thin and my skirt so tight that I had to be extremely careful making my way downstairs. There were two maids waiting in the hall to receive the guests and they both burst out laughing when they saw me. They knew who I was of course, and my cheeks grew hot with shame. I feared I did not look pretty.
There was no one as yet in the drawing room, but my heart sank at the ordeal in front of me. What if I was not as beautiful as I thought?
I heard a light quick step outside and Doris Hind, Helen's cousin, now a lovely girl of fifteen, ran into the room. She wore a smart little short frock of pale pink mousseline de soie with black silk stockings encased in patent leather slippers. A bright fire was burning in the grate; I turned to it, to hide my gag as long as I could.
'Who are you, you pretty thing?' she asked.
I could not answer.
'What's the matter?' she demanded impatiently.
Finally, she turned me around and saw the gag over my mouth. She stared at me astonished for a moment. Then the truth broke in upon her and she clapped her hands with pleasure.
'You must be Denise. Helen has gagged you. How delicious! You are a perfect girl now, Denise.'
I blushed to the roots of my hair, and unconsciously I placed one foot upon the fender to warm it, lifting my skirt an inch or two. Doris uttered a rapturous cry.
'What adorable feet! And, oh Denise, what divine little satin slippers. Let me see!' I blushed again, but this time it was with pleasure.
'What lovely buckles and what fairylike bows! And those dear little pearl-embroidered toes! And what jolly high heels. Show me your ankles!'
I raised the skirt higher, and the delicate, cleanly rounded ankle in its shimmering cobweb of silk and lace came into view. Doris went into ecstasy. 'I should like to perch you on still higher heels dear, and keep you in a glass case to show to my friends. That's really all that you are fit for now. Walk across the room you exquisite thing, and let me see how daintily you can do it in your beautiful high-heeled shoes.' I was delighted with her admiration, but I shook my head at her request.
At once she stamped her foot. 'Quick, or I'll punish you,' she cried. 'Pick up your train and let me see those buckles flashing on your dainty butterfly bows this instant.'
I submitted. I was beginning to learn that one of the inevitable consequences of allowing myself to be dressed as a girl was that everyone, even young girls like Doris, who knew the secret, treated me as a little child in spite of my long decollete gown and fine jewels. I walked daintily across the room and back. Doris applauded me laughing.
'I don't know a girl, Denise, who wouldn't envy your figure and your feet and ankles. Oh, but you must be kept in high-heeled shoes all your life! It would be ridiculous now that Helen has got you so smart and pretty to let you go back into stupid trousers. Being a boy would be so tedious for you now.'
At that moment Helen and Miss. Priscilla came into the room, and the guests began to arrive. There was Mrs. Dawson the clergyman's wife, Lady Hartley and her pretty daughter; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rivers… about twenty people arrived, mostly young people and all of them neighbors whom I had known as a boy. I was introduced to them as Denise Beryl, a cousin. Helen explained how I came to be punished with a gag. I had to stand and listen, but my cheeks burned with shame.
'Denise is unfortunately very vain,' Helen told her delighted guests. 'I had to punish her because she kept showing off her feet in a very unladylike way.'
'She is very lucky to have gotten off so easily,' said Lady Hartley with severity, looking down at my feet through her glasses. 'I should not only have gagged her, I should have taken her pretty slippers away from her altogether.' Then, to my amazement and horror, 'Mr. Guy Repton' was announced and my old schoolfellow came into the room.
He had been expelled in disgrace because of me. How did Helen come to know him? Her first words explained.
'This is my new steward and agent,' she said as she introduced him. I was horrified. He was the new manager of my estates. He had turned out to be a handsome young man of twenty-two with a fair moustache. Helen had given him a fine position and a good income. She must have sought him out on purpose, because she believed that I had caused his disgrace. She wished to surround me with my enemies, I felt sure. Guy Repton would be grateful to her and presumably he hated me. Helen did not even pretend to conceal the reason for her choice of him. She darted a triumphant look at me. I felt more and more helpless in her hands.
Guy entered the room and dazzled the ladies instantly. He had become the gallant in the past two years. Needless to add, my own heart fluttered wildly as he entered the room, for I associated some of my most mysterious feelings with him and the experience we shared at school. I still had fond feelings for him, even if he was the cause of my expulsion and disgrace from the academy. I suddenly felt as though I should thank him for
