Pierre Tour - Up in Heaven

Marcia's eyes were very bright, and her superb breasts swelled voluminously. She had taken Max's hand and was holding it ardently, her eyes never leaving his.

He took a puff of his cigarette and resumed: “My friend smiled and added, 'Not at once however. The first hour of our meetings is devoted to drinks and conversation, to set the scene, as it were, to establish a mood of perfect trust, friendship and intimacy. Not until the master of ceremonies gives the word-and a different person performs this function at each meeting-do the guests look at their numbers. I should have said, by the way, that one is not supposed to know what number is his until the proper moment arrives, and till then each one is completely in the dark. It is a set rule that each person, when the draw is made, shall put the number into his pocket or her handbag without so much as glancing at it. It makes it much more thrilling to wonder for a whole hour which of these ladies present is to fall to one's lot. The ladies especially have a very charming way of looking around the room with ill-disguised curiosity.'

“I had to ask my friend a question then, Marcia. It was this: But what happens should a wife draw the same number as her husband, or one of the bachelors the same number as the girl he brought with him?

“He answered, 'The master of ceremonies decides. Sometimes he rules that the company shall abide by the first draw, or sometimes he makes some or all of us guests draw again, and go on drawing until the luck turns.'

I said to him, 'If I understand you correctly, each person has in the course of the evening a private interview with only one other? There's no further general post, no attempt to stage more complicated arrangements?' ”

Marcia squeezed her husband's hand with convulsive interest.

“'Not the way we're playing tonight,' my friend replied with a smile. “The system to which you will be introduced is-and for your sake I much regret-peculiarly prudish; so modest in fact that when the moment comes for couples to proceed to business, they will withdraw to various rooms of the house, or if that is impossible, for there are not enough suites available, into opposite corners of the drawing room. I should add, however, that, Mr. Phillips, the doors are left open and between the whiles there is no ban on exchanging visits. Generally speaking, however, you will find that the laws of decency are respected.'

“'What I don't quite see,' I told him somewhat nervously, for I confess, Marcia, my love, I was not only vastly intrigued but also a little fearful of such an exhibitionistic process as the outline indicated, 'is what part I am to play in all this. Am I to be just an onlooker?'

“He chuckled, retorting, 'Don't be so impatient. So far from being a mere onlooker, you will have a star part. You will realize that this rather specially prudish system carries with it certain compensation by no means to be despised. Each time we employ it, it is combined with the lottery.'

“'What lottery?' I asked him. 'Are you referring to the method of drawing lots that you've already described to me?'

“'Oh, by no means, Mr. Phillips, one of us, sometimes a gentleman, sometimes a lady, is instructed to bring a guest of honor of the same sex as his- or herself. The choice is left entirely to our discretion, and we are advised to pick any casual companion, provided, of course, that the guest is agreeable to the company.'

“'But what about no outsider, as you have already indicated?' 'Well, Mr. Phillips, that's the exception which proves the rules. The outsider, instead of being a mere hit-or-miss chance, becomes the central feature of the evening. Listen carefully. Tonight it is my turn to provide the guest of honor. We have at our place of meeting a lottery wheel. It contains too many numbers, but that doesn't matter. If a blank is drawn, that is, if the pointer doesn't indicate one of the numbers from 1 to 5, we start again. What happens is as follows: As soon as the ladies have drawn their numbers from the bowl and put them in their bags, you are put up as a lottery prize. The master of ceremonies starts the wheel, which is decorated with highly colored stripes, and keeps it going till the pointer falls on one of the first five numbers — let's pick three as an example. That means that the lady who has drawn three will be able to do what she likes with you after she has had her interview with gentleman number 3. But the lady in question will, at the moment, as you doubtless realize, know nothing whatever about her luck, and for a whole hour she's the winner. I think you'll admit this little bit of ingenuity does not exactly diminish the piquancy of the situation and you, particularly, will be the gainer. There are two other details I ought to give you for your guidance. It's the custom, if not the rule, for the lady to decide on the degree of intimacy she may wish to give to the tests she will impose on you. These tests may be varied and many, but whatever they are, your part is to obey implicitly. I have known the winner to shut herself up jealously with her prize and remain in complete privacy with him the entire evening. I have known others where it has been her whim to have a circle of onlookers, consisting of either the whole company, a select group of witnesses chosen by herself, or by one individual-her husband, for example.'

“You can imagine, my sweetheart, that by now I was thunderstruck at this inventive proposal and I may add, somewhat flattered that I should be invited to such a gathering. Yet, on the other hand, I had a certain diffidence in a strange country. Though one does what the Romans do, one doesn't care to expose oneself to blackmail or meeting unsavory people.”

Marcia squirmed feverishly on her seat, eyeing him with delight. “Oh, what a charming and original story, my darling. You've got me all excited. Now you just can't stop. You must tell me all- and I do mean all-down to bedrock details, or shall I just say down to bed.”

“Imp, what an atrocious pun, though appropriate. Yes-I'll satisfy your feminine curiosity-but there's that penalty you'll have to pay.”

She blushed furiously, eyes averted an instant, then said, “I'll pay it eagerly in advance without even knowing what it is, but you just must go on.”

He went to her, kissed her creamy throat; she closed her eyes suddenly, caught her breath. The delicate and subtle scent of a Lentheric cologne titillated his sensuous nostrils. The smell of sweet feminine naked skin fresh from the bath, spiced with the ethereal scent of artifice, made his lips quiver with desire. But he forced himself to continue, knowing now her own utter compliance- nay her own spontaneous and imaginative eagerness for their union-and so he resumed, “So, I asked my friend, “Well, then, but why not? Why not keep it all perfectly discreet?'

“'How am I to answer that?' my friend chuckled, his brows arching as if in wonder at the ways of sophisticates. 'Maybe the lady in question doesn't want to appear selfish in keeping the others away from what, out of politeness to our guest of honor, we consider to be the feature of the evening. Or again, when it's her own husband she chooses as witness, the natural thing is to assume that her action is dictated by a wifely thoughtfulness, or again a delicious touch of perverse caprice which will cement their own conjugal intimacy. The affair, you see Mr. Phillips, brings into play a whole scale of the most delicate sentiments, and must not be thought of in terms of mere viciousness. That's why such an evening can be carried through at all, only by persons of taste, imagination, and education and good breeding. Each of us is held strictly accountable for his guests. But to go back to your question, don't forget the assumption that by the time the winner takes possession of her prize, the intimacies of the various couples will have reached a stage of, shall we say, pause. The actors, therefore, will be momentarily at loose ends and grateful for this new distraction and the round of drinks accompanying it. Don't forget, either, that the evening will by then be well advanced, that the restraining atmosphere in which it opened will have become rather oppressive, and that the effect of drinks and other things will have tended to warm people up a bit and so lead to certain infringements of the earlier discipline. As a matter of fact, my dear American friend, I'm pretty sure that if you told the winner that you disliked the idea of being watched, she'd make every allowance for your feelings. But there is something else I must explain.'