The wretched old fellow felt his cup of joy running over as he saw his wishes so perfectly understood. He felt that this was indeed a fit realisation of the dream his heart had nursed so long. Kissing the hands of his sweet young wife, he told her that she was mistress in her own house and begged her to do as she thought for the best.
Thereupon, doubtless with the object of heightening her husband's amorous desires and giving him further joy, vicious Stella fell into his arms as though transported with gratitude and rewarded him with a long, affectionate kiss.
Then she went to the collection of birch rods in a corner of the room, and chose from among them those wich appeared most suitable. Stella possessed to an admirable degree a sense of proportion. Accordingly, for the elder children she chose thick and heavy rods, while for the smaller her choice was made from among the slender and tapering bunches of birch.
All therefore were whipped, beginning at the eldest and concluding with the youngest, tears and protestations making not the smallest difference in their sufferings. Each child after being whipped, had to ask papa's pardon and promise to be good in future. The penitent had to go upon his, or her knees with face turned to the wall. In this position, the little girls had to hold up, with both hands, their chemise and petticoats, while the little boys whose knickerbockers were about their ankles had to similarly raise their shirt-tails. In this position they had to remain until the end of the meal. Their choking sobs and stifled wails of suffering agreeably supplied the place of skilled musicians, in the opinion of virtuous Mr. Gostock. From time 226
to time he cast his eyes along the row of bruised, scarred sterns, this exhibition of the flesh of his flesh so pitilessly beaten. His face would then light up with a smile of content while he kissed the fair hands of his adorable young bride.
This scene, alternated with others – for lovely Stella's imagination matched her intelligence – was often re-enacted.
For the rest, Mr. Gostock had only to let fall a word to find it immediately under stood by his wife, who deferred to his every passing whim to the despair of the hindquarters of the puny members of his household.
Not only had Mr. Gostock made arrangements in his will whereby everything which by law had not to revert to his children should fall to his wife, but he had further (so skilled was he in legal chicanery) managed to despoil his lawful heirs of nearly all their legal inheritance in favour of this second wife so greatly and unfairly favoured.
In exchange, Stella gave him all the happiness one can hope for on this earth when united to a lawful wife and awaiting a better world – that paradise where doubtless, for the joy of virtuous Americans, the angels whip little children.
But I have anticipated. It is difficult to be as orderly in one's narrative as in one's ideas, more especially in the case of a narrative opening out so many attractive bypaths as the present.
I return therefore, after this disgression, to the marriage rejoicings of Mr. Gostock. We were all, boys and girls alike, as I have said, invited, and we were in charge of the headmistress.
Early in the morning, we all, servants, pupils and governesses, took our places in two breaks, drawn, each of them, by four horses to the gay music of two energetic posthorn players. The populace of the villages rushed to their doors and gates to see us pass, attracted by the music and the horses. We were flattered by the remarks of the country wenches, women and their husbands, and by the cries of exclamation or admiration of the pleasure in the somewhat sour, unmistakably envious looks of the elder girls. We had no need to hold our heads as though we had been supplied with bearing-reins. We did not wear the cruel leather collar, but our stays kept our figures in excellent shape and very erect. It is hardly necessary to say that all corsets had been laced under the eye of the head-mistress and that her ladyship had paid particular attention to the operation.
The nine miles which separated us from Mr. Gostock's house at Faversham were covered in an hour and a quarter.
Of the actual ceremony I shall say nothing except that, as always, our waists did not fail to attract considerable attention. After the service, fine ladies fingered and felt the "Three Wasps" and asked them questions. The replies were dictated by what they knew to be their head-mistress's wishes, otherwise their questioners would have received some strange revelations. The young ladies, it is unnecessary to add, made their answers with perfect politeness and amiability.
Lady Flayskin's prediction was realised. The triumph of the "Three Wasps" was as nothing in comparison with that of Miss Virginia Malville.
Virginia had paid dearly for her glory. Interminable sleepless nights were only a part of the price she paid for the admiration and astonishment aroused by a waist whose like had never hitherto beenseen.
The head-mistress had spared no pains with this unique example of the power of corset discipline.
The corset! Dread word whose meaning the poor girl at length thoroughly understood! In the morning before she rose, Virginia was wont to receive three visitors, the head-mistress and those two strong-armed servants whose task it had been on the day of Virginia's first flogging to thrust her back into the class-room.
These visitors would find the girl relapsing into a short, fitful slumber after a night of weariness and wakefulness.
It was necessary that she should rise. Her night-corset was taken off in order that her day-corset might be put on. In the evening, when retiring to rest, the same persons paid their visit and performed the contrary operation.
At these visits, the head-mistress would measure, calculate and take careful note of the effects of the lacing on the ever diminishing size of the pupil's waists.
The night-corset was scarcely in any respect different from the day-corset. The former however, was of strong linen, instead of brocaded silk. Its busks and whalebones were less stiff and unyielding and close than in the case of the day-corset. But as regarded the sole particular which aroused any interest in the victim, the lacing, in both cases, remained the same.
The same set of rules sufficed for the other boys and girls of the school. In the case of the "Three Wasps," and Virginia Malville, there was a special and severe code. It was upon Virginia that these regulations of a severer order weighed heaviest. Both as regards her corset boots, and gloves, the head-mistress was pitiless. Ne relaxation of their discipline was ever permitted in Virginia's case.
To do justice to the truth, it must be acknowledged that the girl so attired had a very distinguished and attractive appearance.
Her tallness was accentuated by her high heels. Her sculptural leg and aristocratic foot were shown to their very best advantage in the arched boots reaching up the leg as far as the swelling calf. Her fine sloping shoulders and classic throat gained a perfection of outline (if such had previously been lacking) from the corset compressing the waist to a space easily encircled by the ten fingers. Her plump arm showed a glimpse of its pure white satin beauty just above the elbow where the long, black kid glove ended. Her hand was long and slender, that of a lady of noble birth skilled in the weaving of tapestry. One could imagine a hunting-glove worn to protect those tapering fingers from the fierce falcon poised upon my lady's wrist as her champing palfrey bore her to the chase.
Had Lord Malville seen his daughter at this moment, he would certainly have been astonished, proud, and happy.
Formerly the haughty girl had shown her self conscious of her charms. It was not so now. The difficulty of breathing was now the only thing of which she thought, for so soon as she became in the least degree used to any measurement in her stays, the headmistress gave directions that the lacing should be tighter.