Raspail? Even should you think so, I can prove my bona fides in a moment. Do, I beg you, have a word with our friend Lord Rupert N- -. You shall be a magistrate yourself next month if you murmur your desire to him. You may then spend every day or night of the week with a girl of Julie's kind behind the locked door of the reformatory discipline-room. I beg you will look at certain private records which Lord Rupert will show you in confidence at my request. Or else inquire of old Justice Snook and Master Miles. You will find what fun may be had with such girls as Julie in pursuit of law and decency. A certain price must be paid but most men would yearn for the chance to pay it. Having had some fun, you must exercise the bamboo cane upon the bare bottoms of fifteen-year-old reformatory tomboys like Michele Page, and Elaine, with Pauline her big sister, a plump slut of eighteen with a round face, blue eyes, and a coquettish chignon of fair hair. I assure you most would envy you the chance to have such a pair strapped on all fours over a couple of blocks, side by side.
Would you not at least try the experiment of caning them soundly across their bare bottoms with the bamboo and then giving each sister a taste of the leather dog-whip? Faced with Elaine and Pauline over the blocks, no one will inquire what you may do to them first! No complaints are listened to from such delinquents. I can assure that no other magistrate nor even the Lord Chancellor himself would regret it if you had fun with two such bare-bottomed sisters, enjoying their tightness upon your manhood. A chastiser who has been seduced by the sight of such a pair of culprits will afterwards skin their backsides closely with his whip. You see? The world would not expect you to be other than a man from the waist down. There is no prying into such trivial lapses, for which the sight of Pauline's plump bare buttocks or Elaine's tomboy bottom-cheeks must be held to blame. Even the fact that you vaselined young Elaine would be no crime. Best of all, such moral discipline with bamboo and lash is not only sanctioned by the law in such places. It is rewarded by public esteem. The stricter the method- the more severe the chastisement of Julie or Pauline- the higher will be your reputation as a pillar of social order and probity. Can you be better employed than in dealing with such girls?
Now, tell me true, my dear, does not Julie belong to this class of delinquent? Might you not ease yourself of your present torment by having her confined in such a place and made available for whatever treatment you wished her to undergo at your hands? Far from being reproached by the world-as you will be if you continue with your present infatuation-you might earn the reward of virtue and esteem.
You will perhaps think me harsh and without finer sentiments in the matter. I beg you, though, to consider this. You desire Julie, do you not? Yet you have no present hope of attaining your goal. With equal longing, you wish to be esteemed in society as befits your rank. Yet your present conduct augurs ill for this and seems doomed to end with scandal and disgrace. The state of your nerves grows daily more hectic, for your letters show it. How better to attain your desires and avoid calamity than by the methods I have described to you? If it is apprehension which holds you back from having Julie detained in this manner, let me reassure you. No one in England has ever sunk in moral reputation by using the whip under such circumstances. Our greatest schools have thrived by its employment.
There is scarcely a man or woman of merit in England who would not wish Julie to be subject to the authority of the lash and the reformatory. By following the course I recommend, you would cast off the uncertainty of youth-in the eyes of society-and establish yourself as a man of consequence. Do, my dearest cousin, take this advice to heart. Only give the word and all shall be done for you so that you may have Julie however and whenever you choose. Your loving friend, Maude Anonymous Augustus and Lady Maude X. Augustus to Lady Maude Wight, 21 June, a.m. My dear Maude, How little you know me, after all, if you believe that I could consent to have the object of my affections dealt with in the manner you describe. It is not in the discipline-room of a reformatory among whips and straps that I wish to adore my bride-to-be. You tell me that Julie is not fit to be the lady of my estates. Surely it is your suggestion which would make her unfit. At present, nothing stands against my desires but her own lack of inclination. Yet how could I bring as my bride a girl who had been thrashed in a reformatory?
I have been obliged to take certain of the drops which Dr.
Raspail prescribed in order to maintain my equanimity under these trying circumstances. Your letter brought me no peace of mind. I dare not even imagine the scenes which you delineate respecting the two sisters. I daresay I should find such occasions an object of curiosity. But if you imagine that I could envisage them with Julie as the heroine, you mistake my character more than I had ever thought possible. I can write no more at present. I am so overwrought.
Your loving cousin, Augustus P.S. I have read, on your instructions, the pages which recount Elaine's ordeal. Is it possible to attend the reformatory as a spectator only? Can one obtain an introduction to the master?
XI. Lady Maude to Augustus
Lago di Garda, 25 June
My dearest Cousin, Only the postscript to your letter lightened somewhat the apprehension which I have long felt on your behalf. Lord Rupert will furnish you with all the necessary introductions you require and will esteem it a pleasure to do so. There are public disciplines attended by the justices which you might witness. Yet when the door is locked upon certain scenes, it is only the chastiser who is present with the girls. I am sure you will understand why! Your failing perhaps is one of moral resolve. Cannot you see what may be done in the name of moral discipline? We have had a charming example here in the past few days and, indeed, it is I who have helped to bring it about. Were you to join us here, you would find that I am now spoken of as the strictest duenna who ever watched over the girls of the Villa Lola.
And yet, I assure you, I have never enjoyed myself half so much in my life as I do now with Miss Jones and Marit Aas. By your outrage at the lewd little romps of Julie and Sian it is evident that you have much to learn about the amusements in which the female sex may indulge when there is no man present. I am as devoted to mankind as anyone could be, and yet I confess to a certain satisfaction which may be had in dealing with womankind. In short, I have long wanted to see young Marit's panties as her only covering, solely for the pleasure of stripping them from her. Were I a fool, which I trust is not the case, I had by now attempted a romantic seduction of our fifteen-year-old Scandinavian nymph. And what would have been the result? Outrage and scandal! The end of a pleasant summer by this warm Italian lake. What then was I to do? It was evident that I must become a moralist of the kind only found among the higher orders of English female society. Marit herself gave enough pretext for that.
She is not quite an immoraliste and yet her conduct is a little questionable. In her singlet, saucy little cap, and tight denim pants on her slender thighs and tightly rounded rear cheeks, she parades each day in the town. With her soft young face and the waves of her brown tresses lapping silkily over her collar, she is to be seen sitting at cafe tables with other girls and boys, smoking a cigarette with the studied manners of a little coquette. It is also evident that Marit plays with herself between the legs, furtively enough in the privacy of her own bed. Put all these things together and does she not call for the strictest moral supervision? I summoned her to my presence, with all Mr. Bowler's authority to support me. Marit will be a real beauty at seventeen or eighteen with her firmly rounded chin, wide and charming smile, her short pert nose and light blue eyes. How she blushed now when I spoke to her of her delinquencies, ending with the worst. “Stand up, Marit, and turn about so that I may see you. Such pretty legs for a girl of your age, in those tight denim pants! I'm sure your bridegroom will find them to be graceful and elegant when he undresses you on your honeymoon night! Narrow hips and tight young bottom-cheeks, Marit! Not quite a proper grown woman yet, perhaps! All the same, your backside begins to show a woman's shape!