Having walked almost out of sight, I became aware of Mr. Bowler's voice for he was talking to Miss Jones, having intercepted her before she reached the house. I moved closer and heard him inform her that no inspection of Marit need be carried out that evening. As master of the Villa Lola, and as Miss Jones's employer, his decision was absolute.
Miss Jones went off to play with herself somewhere nearby, for she gets a perverse thrill from doing it where the lads of the town may spy upon her and yearn in vain to supplant her busy fingers with something of their own! I thought that, since Mr. Bowler had decided to spare Marit her examination for that night, I had best go back and release the girl from her vigil at the hatchway. I had just reached the two windows, looking into the rooms on either side of the hatch, when I saw that Mr. Bowler had got there first. The rooms are almost at the level of cellars. Yet as the ground slopes away towards the lake, there are windows on one side, set high in their walls but only at the level of one's knees if one stands in the garden. Because of this and the darkness, it never occurred to Mr. Bowler that anyone might be looking upon him just then. Unlike you, Gussie, I had no idea in advance of watching our friend secretly. Indeed, I was about to tap at the window to draw his attention when I saw Mr. Bowler walk up behind Marit and fondle the tight denim-seat on her trim buttocks with undisguised affection. Before you censure him, dear cousin, consider the situation in which Mr. Bowler found himself. He was to leave for England by express train the next morning and whatever he did now would never be rumoured against him. Marit herself would never be able to say who the man was standing behind her, for the hatch was locked across her back and there was no way in which she could see.
In other words, Mr. Bowler might do whatever he wished, secure in the knowledge that he would be safe from the law, from scandal and even from the possibility of accusation by the nymph herself. All that must have counted as a strong persuasive. Then consider the temptation which Marit herself presented, though it was an innocent one on her part. The tight pants of washed pale blue denim shaped those narrow and almost fragile-looking thighs delectably. The rightly rounded elfin cheeks of Marit's bottom were parted by her posture and the rear way between her thighs was easily accessible. To undo her at the waist and take her pants down would be the work of a moment. Mr.
Bowler smiled to himself. He went back and bolted the door on the inside to prevent interruptions. Very gently he undid her and pulled the denim pants down and off. With her slim-legged look and narrow hips, the briefest panties were enough to cover Marit's most important areas. Mr. Bowler pulled them down and made her step out of them. He tucked them in his pocket and I believe they are destined for that formidable collection kept by Joshua Snook, our worthy neighbour and a most venerable justice of the bench. If so, Marit's knickers may prove to be the most diminutive of many pairs in his desk. Perhaps they will suggest her shape and character to the old gentleman as the larger cotton briefs remind him of his whipping of the fuller-cheeked bottoms of Pauline Cox or Kim Roberts at nineteen or twenty. Now Mr. Bowler paused to inspect the charms before him. His hands examined the young nymph's slim bare legs, for Marit's thighs are hardly thicker than the upper arm of a well-built coal-heaver or labouring man. Mr. Bowler's hand smoothed reassuringly up and down her agile flanks, then fondled the resilient young cheeks of Marit's bottom. He seemed almost content with her, but not quite. A brief stroking between her legs caused him to “tut-tut” and shake his head at the evident lascivious-ness of which she had been found guilty. There was nothing for it now but the severest reprimand. Indeed, how could this worthy justice, this pillar of England's moral establishment do other than what he did? Mr. Bowler went to fetch the school spanking-strap. This device is cut from supple leather, being about two inches broad and eighteen inches long, divided into three flat tails at one end. Marit, of course, could see nothing of what he was doing, yet she must have guessed by the long pause that something of the sort lay in store for her. As she waited I shifted my position a little so that I looked through the next window which showed me her face and the upper part of her body through the hatchway. She is a beauty, Augustus! A real Venus in the making! I make no apology for descanting again on the calm loveliness of the smooth young face, the pretty little nose and that most delightful mouth with its fine young teeth. She twisted her head a little as Mr. Bowler felt her teasingly between her slender thighs and the brown tresses fell this way and that about her collar. Yet beauty at fifteen needs a regular spanking! So our friend-worthy gentleman that he is!-swung the heavy strap to and fro a little as he contemplated the bending nymph in all her nude desirability. Then he raised the tawse and smacked it down with passionate force upon the slim little cheeks of Mark's pretty bottom. Frantically the girl jammed one knee into the back of the other to contain the naked smart of leather across her bare buttocks.
A man of weaker character would have been deterred by the girl's wild cry at the scorching pain of the leather, or by the writhing of her slender legs. Not Mr. Bowler! He aimed the strap six times across her writhing thighs and hurt her so that now Marit screamed under the discipline. To spank her legs with the leather strap was not part of the punishment itself but merely the means used to make her keep still while the sentence was carried out. The strap now whacked and smacked across the demure young cheeks of the Norwegian girl's arse.
Marit squirmed and writhed over the shelf of the hatch like a pretty fish caught helplessly in a net. No blame, nor even the least reproach would ever attach to Mr. Bowler for what he did. For that reason he was exceptionally severe, his mouth tight and his eyes shining as he raised and thrashed the strap down with all his strength. Pretty Marit veiled as if her rump and belly were being impaled on a red-hot spit. One could see that her young bottom and thighs would appear superbly bruised the next day, in a manner almost unknown outside the English disciplinary system. With all his skill, born of experience as reformatory and penitentiary disciplinarian, Mr.
Bowler laid into the pretty little teaser! He paused presently and laid the strap down. It was time to examine his handiwork. His fingers tested the scarlet flush which covered Marit's buttocks and the upper part of her legs. How she thrust her hips out and eased her thighs apart a little for his fondling! See what a lascivious nature the little charmer has! She offered herself to his intimate fingering and seemed as if she would egg him on to do more. Here was the most interesting problem about her behaviour, Cussie. Marit had now been soundly smacked with the strap and was about to get some more.
Was she trying to divert Mr. Bowler to other things by offering the sweet little love-nest between her legs and even the tight little dimple of her arse for his consideration? Or had the tanning truly overcome all Marit's sense of shame and reserve, so that she was ready for anything which her chastiser wished to do to her? That question was not yet to be decided. Mr. Bowler stood back, smiled to himself, and raised the strap again. Though Marit's rear cheeks were already the colour of a pair of skinned tomatoes, he thrashed and thrashed and thrashed again with the wicked strap. How many bare-bottomed strokes would a strict teacher want to inflict upon Marit in the course of a classroom discipline? Would it be twenty, or forty, or fifty? I believe one must expect the number to be high because she is such a little charmer, so calmly beautiful, and yet so indifferent to her elders and betters. Whatever the number might be, I assure you that Mr. Bowler went far beyond it now! Not that I blame him, for one really wished to see Marit taught a lesson in obedience.
Beauty at fifteen, knowing herself to be beautiful, can often be a tiresome little creature and needs an experience of this sort to bring her to heel. I thought he would never have done with her! In the intervals of the tanning there was such gulping and sobbing from Marit, such brimming eyes and moues of self-pity. Then Mr. Bowler swung the strap again and her pretty mouth opened to its widest, most distended shape, Marit shrilled at the things which were being done to her. The strapping had caused her flushed rear cheeks to look somewhat swollen and indeed the outline of the strap appeared printed on them, sometimes across and sometimes slanting. But what was worse for the little charmer was when Mr. Bowler deliberately allowed the tails of the strap to curl between her slim legs, or in between the rounded little cheeks of Marit's adolescent bottom. I fear that he made her endure a few dozen of these intimate flickings before he was satisfied with the state of his girl-pupil. And then, Gussie, came the strangest part of all this. Mr. Bowler went out and came back with a collection of hat-boxes and other impedimenta from which he produced a complete outfit of new clothes for the girl. Nor would he permit her to be attended by a maid, for Mr. Bowler dressed her himself. While she bent through the hatch, he drew stockings up her legs and secured them with garters. Her crimson and swollen buttocks were now covered by French silk panties. Skirts and petticoat followed. Last of all the most charming little boots completed the picture. He summoned Miss Jones to finish off the toilette by adjusting the upper clothes.