During these proceedings the poet had behaved in a very odd manner. Being conveniently distant from the general, he had ventured to hum one or two 'little unconsidered trifles', such as: 'See how the ruthless scythesman reaps His cruel harvest with relentless sweeps Of Sheffield steel.
Oh! lovely youth, oh! sweetly formed Apollo, Thy forest falls to Roger's best ground hollow.'
He paused. And, when the final act of desecration had been performed, and Charlie had raised the lad, still soulful-eyed, still prick erect, to his' sandaled feet, the poet displayed his true nature.
Bounding to his feet, he rushed upon the boy and flung his arms round him, raining kisses on his lips.
Charlie was at first disposed to interfere, but Maudie restrained him.
'This is delightfully unexpected,' she said.
The poet awoke to lights, faces, subdued music, a general tobu bobu of clatter, laughter and applause.
The naked youth turned over to him and kissed him. The poet got up, and, with as much bravado as he could muster, swaggered back among the spectators.
He passed the general, humming, 'A wandering minstrel I-a thing of-'
'Wandering minstrel, my arse, sir,' thundered the general.
'You're a bugger, sir, a goddamned bugger, and you ought to have an umbrella stuck up your arse, and opened inside, sir. Isn't a cunt good enough for you?'
Very brilliant limes focused a large patch of the stage, and on to that were hurried the four latest virgins, 'Jeannie's little lot', as Charlie announced; prominent amongst them was the red-haired flapper whose bush had been spared because of its flamboyant beauty. 'The burning bush,' as the poet had termed it.
After that little interlude, done because Charlie wanted Jeannie's turn over so that she could help him, the boys were proceeded with.
None was so beautiful as the first Sicilian, but they were all very pretty lads. No English, but a brace of young Highlanders whose parents had sold them for the Sassenach's gold, and a red-headed Irish youngster, rather on the plump side, who thoroughly enjoyed the proceedings.
Each of the youths in his turn was quickly operated on, but the poet made no spring. It was an enthralling rather than an 'erotic' exhibition-that is from the lust-compelling point of view of the word. Minds, however sensual, when compelled more to a rapt admiration of the beauty of the naked human form, than a passionate longing to do anything to it.
Charlie's choice had been very admirable. North, south east and west he had gone; and were there to be no question whatever of immorality-per se-there was opportunity enough, and more than enough, for the most eclectic photographic panoramas of the nude.
With the girls, Maudie-now no more the Maudie of the demure 'summer girl' costume, but Maudie radiant in her glorious, flaunting nakedness-took up the razors.
She was quick, almost brutally quick, with them all, and as each nymph was clean cunted, brushed her aside, till, as she rose from the task with a pant, she had a flock of little naked loves giggling and blushing around her.
'Now,' said Maudie, as she stood up, triumphant, 'we have, decided not to have the sports till tomorrow; there is so much to arrange. In the meantime, remember, all of you that this is absolutely Liberty Hall. You can do anything you like.'
The poet began to think.
A maid brought Maudie a peignoir elaborately designed with flowers. She left the great room with her graceful, lissom walk, followed by hungrily lustful eyes.
Tubby announced that he was going for a motor drive, and Charlie said he would go too. They collected Madame Rade and her niece and went.
The old general, when he heard the hum of the departing car, began to think. Even at his age, he was very lustful, and he did want Maudie. He was safe now, with both her young men out of the way, and he knew her room.
He risked it, found the door unlocked, and walked straight in. He found Maudie lying quite naked on the bed, the sunrays glorifying the ivory whiteness of her flesh. He made a cheap excuse about 'Wrong room, my mistake,' etc., and paused.
'Oh, don't go, general,' said Maudie, pleasantly. 'Stop and chat; I'm all alone.'
He sat on the edge of the bed, and caressed her naked knee. She stroked his cheek softly.
The general was a fine-looking old man. Many years of active service had given him a figure upright as a dart. His eyes were clear and bright, and in his trousers there thrilled a lusty cock..
'You must think this place a bit thick, general,' said Maudie.
'Madame,' answered the old soldier, 'I have fought and fucked all over the world, and I have seen most things, though nothing to equal your beauty.'
Maudie was pleased. The general was old, but still he was a distinguished man and a VC. She had had pretty well every variety of young and middle-aged man, but this old hero, who had listened with the stricken prisoners of Cawnpore to the distant skid of the approaching pipes, was a novelty. She thought she'd like it, but she left it to him to ask.
He tarried. He sat closer to her, toyed with her shapely legs and beautifully moulded breasts, kissed her ears, her eyes, her lips, but still was a little nervous to ask so much loveliness to give all of herself to him.
She made him tell her of his fucks and fights. He related how when he was in Constantinople on leave from the Crimea, he had found a Turkish officer whose life he had saved in the trenches, and how he and an invalided French Zouave had been invited by the grateful Turk to see his harem, and do what they damned pleased.
It appears they 'damned pleased a lot', and the old warrior described it all vivaciously.
'I was only a boy then, my dear girl,' he began, 'and by God I loved the girls, bless' em. I believe I was the only English officer in the war invited to get into a really swagger harem-and this chap, Ramuz Pasha, was so grateful that he wouldn't take no for an answer.
'We went into a luxuriously-got-up set of rooms, with about thirty women, some mere children, lying about reading, sewing or smoking, or playing with the little tots children who pottered about the marble floors.
'Well, the pasha bet Sous Lieutenant D'Alberique at myself?100 English that we wouldn't account for the lot them between us.
'My Gad, my dear, we did, and I won another?25 off D' Alberique as a side bet. I was seven ahead. Oh, it was lovely. Those warm, smooth Eastern beauties, their breath smelling of strange spices, their lazy, languorous lust, and the delicate vice of their actions. Lord, they did know how to fuck. "When Ramus told' em I had saved his life they nearly ate me. I never faltered. Between each fuck I jumped into the great bath in the middle of the big room. The water was warmed exactly right, perfumed, and strengthened with some pick-me-up mixture. The slaves brought us coffee, liqueurs, sweets and cigarettes, and it was one triumphant carnival of vice. If there had been any more I could have gone on.
'D'Alberique and I lay back on couches, and looked at our assembled victims-lovely, lustful-eyed Circassians, Greeks, Roumanians, Herzegovinians and Turks-there were even two English girls. And after that, my dear, when I went back to the hotel I found an English society lady on her way out to the front to see her husband, and what a night I had with her. Yet, when I looked out of the window in the morning over the sparkling waters of the Bosphorus I felt like a lion.'
Maudie was interested.
'Were you ever wounded, general?' she asked.
'Only once, madame, and rather badly. I have the scar still.
'Oh, do show me.'
'It's in rather an awkward place.'
'"What odds; do I mind your seeing me naked? Come on. I'm sure it wasn't behind.'
'Madame!'
The old soldier quickly took down his trousers, and there, just below his balls, was a long vicious looking scar. Above it his balls were swollen, and his cock stiff as an iron rod.