"Oh, Gertrude! — Oh, Mamma! Could you not beg me off?"
"Certainly not! I think you deserve the punishment."
CHAPTER 15
There was a knock at the door.
Elise told Miss Stormont that Mademoiselle wanted me in her bedroom.
Gertrude lent me a dressing gown and Elise conducted me thither. A strange, tall girl was in the room. I trembled. Were they going to operate there?
"This is the young lady who has the superfluous hairs on her face," explained Mademoiselle.
"Will you not try electrolysis?" asked the stranger.
"No, shave him-her, I mean," directed Mademoiselle.
So I had to sit down and was lathered and held by the nose while the strange girl shaved me clean.
"There are very few hairs," she remarked. "She will not need shaving very often."
Then I was turned into the bathroom.
Immediately after I sought my clothes.
"Mademoiselle," I exclaimed, "what am I to dress in?"
"Oh! Miss Stormont has your clothes; go to her."
I immediately remembered the events of the preceding evening and shuddered at the prospect of that little riding whip. I trembled as I knocked at Gertrude's door.
"Please, Mamma, may I have my clothes?"
Gertrude was dressed in a charming spring toilette; her tightly laced waist struck me at once.
"Must you have them?" she asked.
"Oh, you know I must."
"And you know," with a whisk of her petticoats, "that you must"-imitating my emphasis-"pay for them!"
I changed colour. She went to a drawer and took out a dainty little feminine whip with a jewelled handle.
"Lie on that couch," she ordered. I did so with reluctance and she put two straps round me, one round my shoulders, the other round my legs at the back of the knees.
"Vest," she remarked. "One! Two! Three!"
The little whip bit and stung fearfully. I cried out and tried to escape, to turn.
"Shirt," she went on. "One! Two! Three!"
The strokes were deliberately and well laid on and bit horribly. She paused a few seconds between each.
"Drawers. One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!"
I yelled-I lost my breath! That was an awful dose. She smiled.
"Trousers-"
"Oh, Gertrude! Oh, Mamma! Oh, Mamma! Oh, stop! Yah! How it hurts!"
She did not stop for a moment and put her hand through from behind and played with my testicles.
"Oh! Oh!" I exclaimed. "Oh, for the sake of our-our love-of-our-night together!"
"Yes, if you will come about town with Mademoiselle and me without trousers"-momentarily suspending her strokes.
"Oh, Gertrude, how unkind!"
"Nonsense! You must suffer the petticoat. Now, Julian. Trousers! One! Two! Three!" With a will from the right side. "One! Two! Three!" With a will from the left. "One! Two! Three!" With a will from my feet. "One! Two! Three!" With a will from my shoulders.
I fairly yelled and shrieked. She unfastened me. I rolled on the floor.
"There are your clothes," she laughed; "and if there was time I'd make you kiss what-made me enjoy whipping you. Your bottom is certainly beautiful waled. Don't you wish you had no bottom for a girl to punish?"
She left the room and me to dress before I could reply.
I was a considerable time for I could not recover from the pain and shock.
"I am glad your mamma has whipped you well!" exclaimed Mademoiselle, seeing how tenderly I seated myself, when, at last, I entered the breakfast room.
CHAPTER 16
As soon as breakfast was over a hansom was called and I was again placed in the middle of the seat between my two dear tyrants. I had not on this occasion that thing behind to incommode me but the whipping had made me quite sore enough to counterbalance the pleasure arising from its absence. We drove to a ladies' shop, not ten minutes' distance from Leicester Square. The window was full of corsets, chemises, drawers, mysterious combinations, and triple garments! Inside, behind the counters, the assistants were all girls, and in front of them numerous customers, all ladies and their daughters.
"I have brought," said Mademoiselle in a loud voice, "this young gentleman to be fitted with a tight corset and lady's underclothing."
What she said was distinctly heard over the whole shop. Some of the daughters tittered, the mammas looked pleased, the shop assistants changed colour.
I felt overcome with confusion and I wished the ground would open and swallow me.
"Certainly, Madam," said the tall handsome shop walker. "Will you walk into a fitting room with me?"
"Miss-, attend to this lady." She singled out a girl whom I had noticed as soon as I had got into the establishment, one who had dark brown hair rolled up in masses over a ruddy face, a voluptuous mouth, black eyes with heavy lips, and a sensual chin.
She had observed me noticing her and had glanced at me.
"What corset would Mademoiselle desire?"
"Oh!" said Mademoiselle. "A severe one with very stiff busks, long waist, high under the arms, long in front, and twenty-three inches in girth."
"I quite understand; here is one, Paris made, which perhaps might do with a Venus shield; it would not wrinkle over the hips in the fitting of the dress or break; or," she went on, "here is a Newmarket Corset, very deep in front (she eyed me) or, here is a Rational-Corset, in fact we keep all kinds; or of course we can make anything you please. And do you wish for silk underclothing, or the ordinary linen?"
"Linen and silk too," replied Mademoiselle, "both."
At the prospect of a large order the manageress became yet more deferential in her manner and gave some hurried whispered directions to her underling.
"These things will be tried on?" she then asked, looking severely at me, and hesitatingly at my governess.
"Certainly," replied Mademoiselle. "In fact I wish him dressed in them now."
"We do not keep dresses; but we can send to-a few doors away for some likely to fit, if you choose?"
"Do so," said Mademoiselle.
The woman bowed. "Now, young gentleman," she said, addressing herself to me, "I must trouble you to take off these things," and she took hold of my jacket.
"Indeed I won't; here-before-you all," I almost whined.
"Julian," exclaimed Mademoiselle, plainly laughing at my piteous tone. 229
"How dare you?" ejaculated Gertrude. "Have you forgotten my whip?"
"So has he been whipped, and I am sure he deserved it thoroughly, I can see what a naughty boy he is. He is under petticoat government, I think," and she looked enquiringly at Mademoiselle.
"Yes," she answered, "he decidedly is."
"A very good thing too. We have had several gentlemen to dress as ladies and it does them great good."
"Then it is not unusual?" exclaimed Gertrude.
"Oh! Dear me, no; not in London at all events. Many gentlemen do it to please themselves, others, because they are made to. Come, Sir! You must take off these things and your trousers too. We do not allow trousers here unless they are linen and trimmed, or silk and open, you know-this is a ladies' shop."
Miss-, the underling, returned at this moment with an armful of silk drawers, chemises, petticoats, corsets, amp;c, and deposited them on the couch.
There was a large glass in front of me and two others on each side. Mademoiselle and Gertrude were seated on two chairs a little distance away.
"Thank you, Miss-, now please send a messenger to Messrs.-and ask them to send round a few ready-made dresses to fit a young lady; waist twenty-three inches, bust so and so and length, Madam?"
"I think," said Mademoiselle, after a slight pause, "they had better send a few frocks suitable for a girl of twelve, or-say fourteen, as well as the long dresses."