For a few moments we felt each other without a word, overcome by our delicious sensations-and I made the next step toward a nearer intimacy by undoing his braces and buttons and sliding the front part of his trousers down till I could let my hand wander underneath his balls. That stung him into action. He freed himself from me, stood up and began to undress rapidly; in about a moment he stood before me stark naked and another moment saw me in the same condition.
We had only one fuck, but we lay there naked for hours, kissing and talking. I wanted more, and I hinted for it, but he would not. “Another time, little girl,” was all he would vouchsafe. At last the falling shadows warned me that I must get back to Madame Karl, and I let him dress me. He gave me a little miniature on ivory of himself, and made an appointment for that day week, the day which coincided with my first rehearsal with the Restall Company. I made him get me a cab, and gave the Jermyn Street address. I felt full of lust as I sat back on the cushions of the hansom, and suddenly as we came into Trafalgar Square, the remembrance of the woman I had met that night of my first arrival at school, her invitation and her address came back to me. I recollected her promise to find me a dress, should I come to see her. Without a moments further thought I pushed the trap and gave the driver her street and number.
PART II
CHAPTER THREE
I was put down before a plain looking house in the midst of a row of equally plain looking houses. A pretty maid servant answered the bell, and seemed a little doubtful when I asked to see Miss Clarence, the name of my oddly met friend. However, my confident statement that I was expected, coupled, I dare say, with my generally smart appearance, ended in my being shown upstairs. I followed the maid to a large high-ceilinged room and at once recognized Miss Clarence in the lady stretched on an ample sofa.
She was got up in a most calculated negligee. A semi-transparent tea-gown was outer garment, but even that was cut low in on her the shoulders and short in the arms like an evening frock, her knees were drawn up so that I saw her uncovered legs right up to well above her knee, uncovered that is, save for pretty openwork silk stockings of a greenish color. She looked very attractive, her hair was obviously just done up by an artist in the coiffuring business, and she was beautifully made up. She had a cigarette in her lips and her left hand held a half emptied champagne glass. There was a thick, intoxicating odor of scent in the room.
“Goodness Gracious!” she said, after a prolonged stare. “My little friend of two years ago; the little girl just going to school. Well, it's a wonder I recognized you. Christ, you are altered, child!”
I mumbled that I had always remembered her invitation, but that this was the first opportunity I had had of accepting it.
“Well, you've come at quite an opportune moment,” she said, after she had extracted my story from me; how I had been cast off, and what had happened to me-I did not tell her quite all that happened to me. “I can make use of you this afternoon. I remember saying that you should have a dress, you shall have it.”
I didn't know very much of the world at that time, but I knew enough to realize that my hostess was a bad woman; bad, that is, in the sense of a woman who sold her body to a good bidder, and intuition taught me that she wanted me for the same purpose. Curiosity, and natural desire to make a little money, gave me courage. I was ready for pretty well anything.
She went on to tell me that she had arranged to find a virgin for one of her richest clients that very afternoon. The girl she selected had disappointed her. “In fact, my little dear,” she informed me, “I was so much at a loss that I had got myself up as fascinating as possible to see if the old devil couldn't put up with me-now you've come.”
“But-?”
“Exactly; you're not a virgin, but you look a child, and the physical difficulties can be got over. You'll do very well for a first class virgin. First of all, however, that smart frock won't do; my old man expects a poor girl.” A ring at the bell interrupted her talk, and she immediately pressed an electric button at her side. “Marie,” she said to the maid who entered, “If that is General Salis, tell him to wait in the dining room. Give him a drink but don't dare to be loving to him or-.”
“But the General is so impetuous,” answered the pretty girl.
“Well, don't let him put his impetuosity into you,” laughed Miss Clarence, “tell him that I have a little friend waiting for him.”
“Now,” she said when the girl had gone, rising to her feet, and becoming a business woman on the instant, “are you game for this; it's be ten pounds in your pocket; not a bad afternoon's earnings?”
“I'm game,” I replied. “Give me a drink though.”
She poured out a glass of champagne, and while I was drinking it, began to undo my bodice. I was soon disembarrassed of everything but my underclothes, and Miss Clarence looked at me critically. “Your undies are rather too smart,” she said, “but I'll tell him I gave you these for the occasion. Now for the virginity part of the business.”
She led me into an adjoining room, filled a basin with water and dropped the contents of a paper into the water: “That's powdered alum,” she remarked, “that'll dry your little cunt up, my false virgin,” at the same time filling a syringe with the mixture. I obeyed her and injected the alum and water. “You'll have to bleed,” she added, “these old men always look for that. I'll show you how. Here's a little bladder of pigeon's blood, put it under the string of your drawers, or anywhere else where you can hide it. When he's having you, you must wriggle about a lot and scream, and you must find a chance of breaking this. Crack it with your nail and manage to let some run over his cock and balls; get it into his hairy part if you can, but above all get your drawer saturated. If I know the General he'll probably want to take those away as a trophy; of course he'll give extra money for another set for you.”
Then she dressed me in a very plain three quarter length dress of common material and made me let my hair down. “Capital,” was her comment when she surveyed me, “you don't look more than fourteen; the old man'll think he's got a treasure.”
With my little bladder of blood tucked into my drawers and my poor pussy dried up to the closing point with the alum, I followed her back into the drawing-room. She rang again, and presently the General followed the maid into the room.
It was a desperately business like proceeding, and it was not till long afterwards that I recognized how all this straightforward bargaining and arranging appealed to the old rip for whom I made the sacrifice. She had instructed me to be extraordinary coy, and I sat on the couch with my face half covered with my hands, taking care, however, to let the most attractive part of it be visible, and taking care at the same time to stick out my shapely legs as far as possible from under my frock.
The General was a fat man with a double chin and fierce moustache. He came into the room with a military stride, and kissed Miss Clarence on the cheek.
“Lock the door, Marie, and sit down by it,” said Miss Clarence, “General-you trust me, and you must trust Marie-this child may be hurt, and I shall want some one to help me look after her.”