The heart of Lady Flayskin remained adamantine and she remarked:
"You see now! You have done your task 199
and it was easy enough. But I notice that the stays fit too loosely; they are not drawn in at all. Come here and let me arrange that for you."
The poor girl, with the stiff steps of an automaton, approached the mistress. She might have been a German soldier, as without turning her head to either right or left by so much as a quarter of an inch, and without bending a knee, she made her military advance. By the way in which she put her foot to the ground and the wry face which accompanied the movement, it was plain that she suffered from her narrow new boots with their exaggerated high heels and endless high sheaths which so pinched and compressed both leg and ankle. The sufferings from the boots were very real, but they did not count, so to speak, in comparison with the agonies she was now enduring from the corset.
She stopped before the mistress with a precision in her right-about half-turn which a soldier of his Imperial Majesty the German Emperor might have envied. Lady Flayskin put a knee against the magnificent posterior 200
and, taking hold of the laces, pulled with all her strength.
She then said that her efforts were being opposed by the girl whose sides were expanding spasmodically though for a most natural reason. The lungs by a reflex movement were struggling for their existence. The instinct of self-preservation is stronger than an intention to be obedient; stronger too than fear of the whip, and the girl was powerless in the grip of that instinct.
With an unpleasant laugh, the head-mistress pushed her victim towards an angle of the room across which was placed a small cupboard. Lady Flayskin was never at a loss for expedients. When she had an end in view no difficulty was permitted to oppose her for long. She had an expedient for surmounting every obstacle in her path. Virginia obeyed the push given her as though she had been a moving corpse.
The little cupboard, when opened, was found to contain, screwed down upon a stand, a pretty little capstan, similar in all respects to those employed on ships for raising the anchor. A strong silk cord was wound round it, ending in a steel hook. The handles for turning the miniature capstan were wanting, for they were, in fact, unnecessary. Lady Flay skin attached the lace of the corset to the steel hook and then pressed an electric button. The capstan then proceeded to turn with extreme deliberation while the unfortunate victim cried in scarcely andible tones that she could feel her bones cracking in her chest.
The capstan continued to turn.
Virginia, with a desperate gesture, raised her hands to her throat, crying:
"I am on fire! Air! I stifle!"
The capstan still turned, but with such slowness that a single revolution had not yet been completed.
The girl beat the air with her arms. She opened her mouth, but no sound now did she make. Her eyes rolled convulsively. A small spot of blood appeared at the corner of the mouth. She fell forwards and her face must have struck the ground had she not been held up by the hook.
Immediately the finger of Lady Flayskin was raised from the electric button and the capstan ceased to revolve.
Virginia, in a dead faint, head hanging for wards, hands touching the ground, feet resting motionless against the bottom of the capstan-stand, was raised by the strong arms of her ladyship, who proceeded to detach the hook. Then she carried her as though she had weighed no more than an infant, and laid her upon the sofa on which the two had been previously seated together.
The application of vinegar to her temples, Eau de Cologne to her wrists, and salts to her nostrils, caused Miss Malville to open her eyes, wherein clearly shone the light of reawakened terror and incipient fever. Her pallor was almost the dread pallor of death though by moments it was exchanged for an equally abnormal deep red flush. In a voice of pain, she said:
"My lady, have pity! I cannot breathe. Set me free. I cannot suffer more. "
But the cruel mistress, far from showing pity, replied:
"Be silent! You are too talkative! The commencement is painful, I know. But as I have told you, it is necessary to know how to suffer in order to acquire beauty. Your sole thought should now be the regulating of your breathing. It is unnecessary for a woman of society to puff like a grampus. Take in just the amount of air that your lungs require. The discomfort will vanish and you will be as beautiful as a dream. There now, stand up! Like that! Let me help you."
The unfortunate girl, in the hope that the change of position would bring her a measure of relief, had attempted to stand up and had fallen heavily backwards. She now lay at full length on the sofa, just as she had been laid there after her faint by Lady Flayskin.
Assisted by the strong arms of the mistress, Virginia rose in a wooden fashion as though she had no joints. A rumbling was in her ears and the voice of Lady Flayshin came to her as though from the other side of a wall. Her sight was dim and difficult, for blood rushed to her head, giving a look of smouldering fire to her pupils. This look would quickly disappear and the eyes would appear as colour less and expressionless as doubtless did, to their owner, the scene upon which they fell. Lady Flayshin spoke again.
"You shall see how beautiful you are going to be. This corset fits you perfectly, it inakes you appear delicious, dearest. When you have on your dress… no, not the silk one you have taken off… the other one, of muslin, in accordance with the regulations of the establishment… I tell you that when you wear this its dress, waist measure matching that of the corset, and when you look in the glass, you will not recognise yourself…
Now you abuse me for making you suffer…
You don't deny it? Don't make that pretty gesture of denial; it is needless… The day will come, I tell you, when you will thank me for having taught you how to show of your charms to such perfect advantage."
The poor girl was certainly unable to make any interruption. Her arms felt as heavy as lead and she had not the least desire to make the smallest deprecating gesture. She had, it is true, made a faint effort to join her hands in an attitude of entreaty, but the slight 205
movement bad proved beyond her exhausted strengh. The chattering of the mistress made her giddy. Every sound echoed in her brain like blows on an anvil.
Lady Flayskin appeared resolved to increase her pupil's discomfort yet farther, for her gestures increased an multiplied in a manner as useless as disagreeable, while, contrary to her wont, she raised her voice until she almost seemed to shout.
"I suppose," she continued, "that I must have a weakness for you, to be spoiling you to such an extent. Here am I passing you your dress after having laced up your corset? Upon my word I am acting like your lady's maid. It is past belief. Tell that to the other pupils! But I flatly forbid you to do any such
thing. Will you tell them?"
Them girl's lips stirred but no sound did they make. Her mouth felt dry and burning, as did her throat also, for all saliva seemed to have ceased to flow.
Her ladyship insisted. Approaching her mouth to her pupil's ear, she shouted with all her strength:
"Will you kindly do me the honour to reply?"
Virginia trembled as though a thunder bolt had burst in the room. With a grimacing expression of suffering, she forced her lips to utter a sound, and Lady Flayskin received the almost inaudible reply:
"Yes!"
"Yes what?"
She made no reply. Her ladyship cried:
"This is insupportable! You now fail in respect to me, who thought your silly pride had been driven out of you. You speak to me as to a lady's maid. I have helped you to dress, it is true, but that is no reason for thinking me the servant of your whims. Servile work is not my work. If I have been disposed to consent to do it, it is because it pleased me. My motive is sufficient and is no extenuation of your bad manners. Reply properly. Or, if not… "