And when they go to bed at night
They play a game of cricket.'
Since then she has attended Sundayschool no more, but prefers to spoon the curate at afternoon tea.
And now I want to tell you about rather a curious thing that has happened, only you are so delightfully innocent that 1 — 100 — scarcely know how to explain it to you.
You know that it is quite a common tiling for a man to 'keep ' a girl as a the mistress'* or 'cocotte,' on whom he lavishes money and presents, while she in return ministers in every possible way to his sensual desires!
Even in pious. London this goes on, and in St. John's Wood, and at Richmond many a dainty little house with an exquisitely dressed mistress bears witness to the genuine piety of the London County Councillors! In Paris, on the other hand, every man without exception, who can afford it, keeps one or more ' cocottes ' and these are to be seen driving every day in the most splendid carriages, or displaying their beautiful busts and shoulders in the most gorgeous costumes at the Theatre or Opera, Their photos are in every shop-window, their doings are freely discussed in the papers, some of which make a speciality of giving lull accounts of their midnight supper-parties, which start with all the guests most correctly and beautifully dressed, and end with their all being still beautifully undressed. Ladies of fashion discuss them quite freely pointing out to one another the frail beauties kept by their respective husbands, and imitating them not only in dress and manner, but as far as they know how, in their lascivious behaviour in the privacy of their bedroom, And now, I suppose, you will exclaim ' What is the girl driving at? '
Why just at this, my dear Ethel, which I could not very well explain without leading up to it rather gently. In Paris it is getting almost as common for a beautiful girl to be 'kept' by some leading society woman as by a man! Does that take your breath away, dearest? Because if so, prepare for another gasp. The fact is that the Countess has fallen completely in love with me; and though she cannot have me altogether to live with her, as she would like, Madame allows me to spend a day and a night with her every week, during which she lavishes on me the 'economies of love ' that she has been saving up all the week. She has had a lovely bedroom fitted up in her house especially for me, the walls and ceiling of which are covered with mirrors, interspersed with the most suggestive and voluptuous pictures. The floor is so thickly carpeted that one might sleep on it without discomfort, and is strewn everywhere with the softest and most luxurious satin cushions. The bed itself is a triumph of voluptuous elegance, and the room is filled continually with the most delicious and intoxicating perfumes. The large hanging cupboards and chest of drawers are filled with the most lovely improper costumes,transparent chemises, openwork tights, lace drawers, satin corsets, etc., in which we array ourselves when we retire there for an evening's pleasure. When I tell you that she has taken into her service the two naughty children whose performance I described in my last letter, and that their special duty is to wait on me when I am there, you can imagine that we have a most delightfully naughty time, when we are together.
I generally go to her on friday evening, and stay with her till Saturday night; When 1 arrive I find the two children waiting for me dressed as pages in ' tights,' and low satin bodices, with their long hair hanging almost to the waist.
They conduct me to my bedroom and dress me-a task which pleases them both immensely, but especially the boy, whose tights instantly betray the movements of his precociously developed ' flute.'
When I am quite undressed, they conduct me to the splendid bathroom that opens out of the bedroom, and there the Countess's own maid helps me to enjoy the delicious sensations of a hot and heavily perfumed bath. After this I am dried and massaged, by the clever maid, and my hair is carefully done up in the latest fashionable style;
I then select the costume that I am going to wear, and to give you some idea of the way we dress at these select little dinners, I will describe to you what I wore the last time I went there.
The colours I decided on were pink and black, and accordingly a chemise of the thinnest black chiffon was brought me, with big bows of pink ribbon to act as shoulderstraps, and with a trimming of the same found the ' decolletage 'of the neck, Black openwork silk stockings, with pink and black satin garters were finished off With very pointed shoes of pink kid with immense Louis XV heels. A pair of pink kid gloves sewn with black and reaching to the elbow completed a costume, which sounds perhaps rather gloomy, because, there seems to be a good deal more black than pink in it; but, if you ever try wearing a thin black chiffon chemise, you will find that your body supplies the pink, which the faint black of the chiffon only serves to heighten.
When I was thus arrayed the pages ran off to fetch their mistress, who was impatiently waiting in her own room. She arrived in similar costume, only the colours she wore were light-blue and a very pale shade of caf-au- lait.
In a moment we are clasped in one another's arms, the contact of our naked bodies-for chiffon is as good as nothingcausing the most delightful shivers of pleasure to run all over us as we imprint long and lascivious kisses on one another's lips, We do not however take any further liberties with each other, as the dinner is served almost immediately, at which we are waited on by the two pages, though the boy finds the sight of our beauties so entrancing that he can scarcely walk owing to the pressure of his 'dolly ' against the tights.
Meanwhile we excite ourselves with the highly-seasoned viands, washed down with liberal draughts of champagne, in which the pages share, until we are all in such a state of lire that we rush into each others arms in an absolute fury of sexual desire.
Then follow a series of the most voluptuous scenes that can possibly be imagined, the Countess continually discovering some new means of heightening the pleasure.
On the Saturday morning the Countess generally drives me out in her carriage, and we make a tour of the shops, in the course of which she is only too delighted to buy me anything and everything that I may take a fancy to. The result is that I have now a large collection of the loveliest hats, stockings, handkerchiefs, gloves, etc., that you can possibly imagine, and I am sure you will be perfectly enraptured when you see them. The other girls in the Lesbian Club were at first quite mad with envy of me on account of my good fortune, but as I often pass on some of the Countess's presents to them, they are beginning to get reconciled to my intimacy with her.
Thanks to her various introductions, I have been going into Society a good deal and I am gradually learning what an immense amount of sensuality there is.
Underlying almost every Society function. At a ball, for instance, everything that can possibly excite the passions is carefully provided. The soft, but brilliant lights, the heavy perfume of the flowers and the slow languorous strains of the waltz music, all tend to arouse the sexual portion of the brain. The costly dresses of the women leaving the bust and shoulders naked, so that the maddening perfume of her very body rises to the nostrils of her partner tend to excite the men to the utmost pitch; while the soft touch of their delicate kid gloves and the thrill of the warm body inside the tightly-laced corset, as his arm encircles her waist, still further heightens the lascivious effect.
One lovely evening gown which the Countess gave me is really shockingly low cut and so thin that when 1 waltz the movement of the air holds it against my body in such a way that the outline of the legs and ' ventre ' show as plainly as if they were in tights. The Countess's favourite amusement is to watch me dancing in this dress with some young and susceptible partner. whose trousers soon begin to assume a more and more distorted appearance, until by a slight turn of the body I let him see the rosy points of my ' tiddies,' erect and firm at the thought of the effect I am producing. This generally fetches out his 'dolly ' so far that I can feel its head against my leg, and at that stage I generally think it safer to let him conduct me into a quiet corner, where his conversation, as a rule, soon betrays the hot and passionate lust that is consuming him.
All this is great fun, both in exciting the men oneself and also in watching the intrigues and flirtations of other naughty touples. One thing, by the way, that I have learnt from the Countess is that, when you sit out with a man on the stairs, you should always sit a step or two below him for then a dexterous bend or two will open your corsage in such a way that he can see not only your tiddies, but far down below them-a sight which is certain to cause him keen enjoyment. On the other hand, if you are entertaining a man in your boudoir, you should lie on a sopha or on a long chair, and let him sit in a low chair at your feet, when by a little thoughtless lifting of the knees, etc., you will give him a view of quite a different, but no less enchanting, portion of your person. Another thing the Countess has taught me is, in dressing for a ball, to wear plenty of soft frothy petticoats, but no drawers; for when a man's hands begin to wander gently up your leg towards the garters and higher-as often happens to me when 1 am at a ball and am sitting out a dance with some nice fellow in quiet corner-he loves to come in contact with the delicate texture of luxurious petticoats, but is sadly disappointed if his fingers cannot at last find the cave of delight
