Blanche had already retired and I was left alone with the good lady of the house. I took advantage of this to thank her for the complete success of the first part of the programme.
The second part will be much more pleasant for you,' she assured me. 'Everything is ready and Rose has received all necessary instructions.'
CHAPTER FIVE: The Whipping-Room
When my two charming 'nieces' and Rose returned, Madame conducted us to the whipping-room. It was a large room hung with dark yellow velvet Ladders of varnished wood, the bars of which were here and there provided with straps, a wooden horse covered with soft leather, a cupboard containing every kind of instrument of flagellation, a long wide sofa and a narrow oak bench, both of them furnished with straps, and finally the whipping-chair formed the furniture of this comfortable apartment from which no cries or appeals could escape.
Not that it was a room of torture, far from that, but, as I explained to the girls later, there are certain refined voluptuaries who never feel the supreme pleasure so keenly as when they have been severely scourged by a female hand.
We must of course admit that there are tastes of all kinds.
As soon as we had entered the room, Madame left us to the tender care of Rose who alone had accompanied us.
My little friend invited us to be seated and then said, 'I must tell you, young ladies and monsieur, that it is a rule of the house that no visitor may enter the whipping-room without receiving a whipping. It is a tribute which must be paid! With which of you shall I begin?'
Evelyn and Nora, crimson with confusion, declared that they would be much too much ashamed to be whipped before me.
At this Rose laughed heartily.
'Really?' said she. 'Perhaps you are afraid that your uncle would be shocked at the sight of your charms?. . If that is so, you may banish all fear. Monsieur is no novice, I can assure you. He has seen many a whipped bottom. And I don't mind admitting that he has seen mine dancing under the rod not so very long ago.'
'But,' objected Evelyn, 'it must hurt terribly!' Rose's laughter increased.
'Not at all, not at all!' said she. 'Please remember that we are here far our pleasure and not for our pain! Don't be alarmed, young ladies, and make up your minds to go through it. One thing is certain, and that is that you will not leave this room without having had a whipping, nor will your uncle either!'
'Oh, for my part,' I said, 'I will gladly submit to the rules of the house.”
'Then,' said Evelyn, 'you have it first!'
'No,' said Rose, 'that would be breaking the rules. We must always begin with a visitor who is making a first visit to the establishment.'
'Evelyn,' said I, 'I will give you my word of honour that I will go through it after you and Nora.
And besides, didn't you tell me that you were “prepared for anything”. If you want to understand things you must learn by personal experience. . And I assure you that you won't suffer any pain, but quite the contrary!'
'But you will see me!'
'And have I not some little claim to such a delicious reward?'
'And Nora will have it after me?'
“Yes, after you, and I after Nora!'
'Oh, good heavens, very well then; do with me as you like!. . '
Assisted by Rose I led her to the armchair. The seat consists, so to speak, of two arms placed close together, hollowed out like a gutter, and thickly padded. We directed Evelyn, to kneel down on it and this she did without much hesitation.
Promptly Rose fastened her legs to the arms by means of two broad webbing straps, and then directed her to place her arms round the back of the chair: these she fastened securely at the wrists by means of another strap.
Evelyn then noticed that her stomach was resting on a sort of velvet cushion fixed at the bottom of the back of the chair.
'What is it placed there for?' she asked, a little frightened without knowing exactly why.'
'To support you, darling,' I said. 'Now, don't be afraid!'
Touching a lever, Rose set the back of the chair in motion.
It fell slowly, but steadily, backwards, drawing with it the upper part of the astonished Evelyn's body.
A cry of distress issued from her pretty lips, and Nora, frightened too, rose from her seat and seemed inclined to cry out-
'Don't be frightened,' I said quickly. 'Be a good girl, Nora. I've told you that no harm shall happen to Evelyn. You can have complete confidence in me.'
Evelyn, meanwhile, continued to utter little cries of terror which became more plaintive when, the back of the chair continuing to fall backwards, the dear girl found herself flung forwards, quite gently it is true, and without her fastened limbs or her body suffering any pain whatsoever. The downward movement only ceased when the back was almost parallel with the floor, and as the arms had risen as the back fell, Evelyn found herself exactly as if she had been on all fours, that is to say her bottom was raised in a way most admirably adapted for a whipping. This position in itself was already extremely exciting for Nora and me, the spectators-especially for me-but what was it compared with what I was about to see!. . The mere idea of this made me tremble with desire.
Evelyn, on finding herself thus exposed, felt a very natural agony of shame. She cried out more loudly and her lovely face expressed a regular terror when she found herself thus placed with her head lower than her heels.
Rose gently reassured her.
'Oh! Miss Evelyn,' she said, 'you are not going to cry out like a little baby, surely!.. You know that it's only fun! If you really deserved to be punished and if we wished to do so, we should not take so much care to make you comfortable, should we? You will see how curious it is and what strange and powerful emotions this new experience provokes. . Now, be a good girl, and we will begin me operation.
'Ah, yes! Monsieur Quatrefois will see your pretty little bottom! He will see it birched! And what if he does! I don't suppose that you imagine it will be the first time that he has seen such a thing!
I can assure you that your bottom will not be the first that he has seen under such conditions; will it, monsieur?'
'I'm obliged to confess that it will not!' said I laughing.
But the shame which is inseparable from the 'preparation' for a whipping had now taken complete possession of Evelyn. Her face was crimson and sweet little tears appeared on her long eyelashes and this attitude of humiliation, I must confess, gave me infinitely more pleasure than if she had taken the situation as a matter of course, to be merely laughed at.
Rose delicately seized between the thumb and finger of each hand the edge of her light skirt and turned it up slowly over the patient's shoulders. Evelyn uttered such a cry of distress that, if I had not restrained myself, I should have flung myself on my knees before her and kissed her little lips, so pretty in their timid fear, in order to comfort her.
'Oh, what are you going to do?' she sighed.
'I am about to uncover this part of you, miss,' said Rose smiling. 'You don't suppose that we are going to whip you over your petticoats, do you?'
'Evelyn, darling,' I said in my turn, 'if you really wish to know everything, you must submit to everything. And it's all the more easy to do this because, I assure you, it isn't a punishment that Rose is about to inflict on you but a most delightful caress!'
'Oh, I believe you. . But it seems so dreadful! So shocking! Oh, do get it over quickly!' Rose, highly amused, proceeded to raise the soft petticoat and then her light and skilful hands sought out, under the waist and the upturned clothes, the buttons of the drawers.
And, as is always the case, this search was the beginning of the excitement, and what a novel excitement it was, for Evelyn. I could see it in the nervous trembling which shook her charming posteriors, still protected by their thin covering. I could not take my eyes from those splendid rotundities, the bold roundness and fullness of which were thus suddenly revealed to me. The drawers, made of the finest lawn, were open-as the drawers of every self-respecting flapper should be- and at the bottom of the slit, near the thighs, a little end of the chemise peeped out, and trembled like a little tail. How I should have loved to raise this little tail and insert beneath it an investigating finger or an inquisitive glance! The drawers, very full in the legs- although at this moment tightly stretched by the jutting-out position of their sumptuous contents-were slit up the side to a certain point and this opening was fastened at the top by a large bow of rose-coloured satin. Rich Valenciennes lace, forming an edging, fell down over the well-formed calves encased in their charming open-work black silk stockings. They were as pretty a pair of drawers as you could want to see, and I could not help wondering if Evelyn, anticipating what was in store for her, had put them on for my benefit, and if I should find that Nora was equally dainty in her undies when her turn came to display them. Meanwhile Rose, having found the buttons, slipped the drawers down to the knees, and then slowly, and with gestures which seemed almost religious, raised the fine crepe chemise and turned it up over the shoulders with the petticoats.