She was not sufficiently romantic to suit the scene, but possibly her very want of sentimentality and her breezy, matter-of-fact air, and the absence of womanliness she affected, formed an inspiriting contest.
The undulating glades of the park dotted with clumps of oak, and here and there with single great trees in the shade of which the fallow deer browsed and lay, presented a charming picture of rural peace and plenty.
At some distance I saw the sea spread out like a cool sheet of silver in the sunshine, its surface occasionally ruffled by the movement and scream of the water hens and other waterfowl.
The house itself was large, low, and appeared to cover an immense expanse of ground, but it had no architectural pretensions of any sort. It looked comfortable but ugly, in fact like a great overgrown farmhouse with too many windows. In the pleasure grounds some fountains and statues alone redeemed its character. I noticed with a qualm the presence of a few silver birches, peculiarly a lady's tree-but a rare one in these parts.
When we arrived we went straight up to Lady Alfred Ridlington's apartments and into her bedroom.
As she took off her things, I was introduced to Ellen.
The manservants in the hall, the silvery haired butler, the three or four stately footmen, and my Lord's man in plain clothes, who gave Alice a message from her husband as she passed up the stairs with me, gave me a totally different impression from that which I had received upon my entry to Downlands, where, in the house, there were no menservants at all.
The men looked at me and I felt uncomfortable, but soon found myself lifted out of the life of the house, and entirely confined to milady's portion of it. In fact, my very existence there might have been, and except for my passage through the hall probably was, unknown to everyone in the establishment except to its mistress and to Ellen.
Ellen was a gipsy like girl with very dark eyes and smooth blue-black hair, thin, and of dark complexion, observant but reticent, with hot temper and very little good humour. Her laugh was cold and not hearty, and I dreaded her.
She possessed an utterly unsympathetic nature, and while no one could be more punctilious or attentive in her duties, she remained always closely wrapt in herself. There was an inner Ellen, to which no one penetrated or seemed to care to penetrate. I concluded she had been crossed or disappointed in love. Her nature had evidently been originally a warm-hearted and affectionate one, which some hard black frost had congealed into thick-set ice that nothing could break up.
Now, although I wore a very plain black dress, my underclothing was of the richest descriptions.
When I had been introduced to Ellen, Alice made me lift up my skirts, to shew her my heavily laced drawers; there were triple rows of lace round the knees, and a long frill of it up the back of the legs.
Ellen had glanced at me in a very equivocal fashion when she first saw me. When I coyly displayed my garments to her, and attitudinised with first one shapely leg and then the other, her eyes became thoughtful and flashed.
"You must let me see better for myself," she said, leading me to a sofa upon which she threw me backwards. Her hand very soon set her doubts at rest. "So he is a boy," she exclaimed to Lady Alice who was nonchalantly arranging her hair at the glass.
The manner in which she had felt me was so cold and passionless that it had not aroused the least excitement.
"Yes," answered Alice, "he is a boy to be broken in to petticoats. He is to attend to me, to be my maid during his visit, and under you-under your orders."
"I understand," answered Ellen grimly, giving me a stern look which made me feel very uncomfortable.
Alice presently went down to lunch and left me with Ellen. I helped her to unpack Lady Alfred's things and she gave me various dresses to brush and boots and shoes to clean. She showed me our workroom, where, she told me, we should also have our meals-a very plainly furnished apartment, but with a pleasant view across the park.
Our bedroom was a good-sized one, with two small beds in it. She had, besides, a small sitting room of her own, in which were some books, and flowers, and canaries, who plainly, from the glance she gave them, were the pets that possessed all the softness which yet lingered about her.
I did not at all like being ordered about as I was, but very quickly discovered that Ellen would stand no nonsense.
The thought of the two beds in the same room also filled me with consternation.
"I cannot allow you to wear such drawers. Come with me into my bedroom. I shall take them off; they are a great deal too fine for a maid. In fact, at present, I shall not permit you to wear any drawers at all; and I do not approve of this dress, it makes you look too dignified and stately for your place. You must wear a frock, with a low neck and no sleeves; and I think, too, that as you appear anything but respectful and submissive, it will be just as well at once to correct and improve your disposition. My lady had not told you that I am Scots in great measure, and a firm believer, consequently, in corporal punishment. I can see plainly that severe chastisement periodically administered will greatly benefit you.".
"Oh, Ellen!" I exclaimed, turning all manner of colours.
She walked to her room bidding me follow her; and when I had entered, she shut the door behind me.
"Take off your drawers and hand them to me, if you please," she ordered, dryly and peremptorily.
I looked at her, I looked up, and I looked down, and she steadily looked at me, not repeating her command, but waiting for its execution and evidently wondering how long I was going to keep her waiting.
Some magnetic force impelled me. To my astonishment I found my arms under my skirts, loosening the bands of my beautiful baby drawers of which I was proud and very reluctant to part with.
"Bring them here," said Ellen.
And I obeyed.
"Thank you. Now take off your dress, your petticoat bodice, and your petticoats, and be quicker about it."
I again looked at her involuntarily; I suppose with the view of ascertaining what possibility there existed of successfully rebelling. Ellen very calmly and determinedly returned the gaze. Neither of us spoke.
I proceeded to divest myself of my dress, amp;c, as directed, and stood in my corset, chemise, and stockings before my mistress.
"You will not require those things again; fold them and put them away in this drawer." She went to a walnut chest of drawers and opening one, left it open, and said: "Put your clothes in there."
Under the power of her eye, I, with reluctance, in spite of myself, put my dress and petticoats in.
"Now shut the drawer."
I pushed it with my knees.
"Now you will inform me how you have been accustomed to be punished. Have you had a governess or a tutor?"
"A governess," I stammered out, hanging my head.
I am sure it was not my imagination that Ellen's form dilated at this reply. A keener light came into her eyes and a more set look into her countenance.
"I am glad to hear it. And pray, has she punished you?"
"Yes."
"Often?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"In various ways."
"Has she whipped your bottom?" asked Ellen, looking full at me.
"Yes, she has."
"With a birch, I suppose?"
"Yes."
"Across her knee?"
"No, on a bench, or across an ottoman."
"A fine thing for a big boy like you to be whipped by a girl," exclaimed Ellen scornfully, "and your bottom too!"
I blushed.
She walked to a drawer in an old-fashioned escritoire, opened it, and took out a black leather strap, four or five inches broad and about thirty inches long; its end was sliced into a number of thin strips about six inches long.