Lord Kidrodstock - Stays and gloves

"And the next?" inquired bateful Stella, as she let Dora go. The victim had certainly received an over-dose.

"It is Alice's turn, if you will be so obliging," replied the head-mistress.

"If I will be so obliging? Why I shall be charmed! I have always found special delight in whipping the impertinent seat of that vicious little boy. His back parts tremble in such a curious, interesting manner."

Seeing "Alice," that is to say myself, dressed, of course, like a girl and pushed towards Stella by the servants, some of the old gentlemen were moved by the strongest curiosity. I heard them murmur:

"Look! Look!"

It was certainly an unusual spectacle, this big boy of ten years old walking awkwardly forward, equally troubled by the curious looks, his stays, his high heels and the other feminine paraphernalia, as by his fear of the scene which was, he knew, to follow. They saw me throw myself upon my kness and with 245

clasped hands implore Stella to intercede for me, and afterwards, since the entreaty fell upon deaf ears, implore her not to strike me too hard. They saw Stella laugh until tears run down her cheeks, then truss me. They saw the exact form and configuration of my hindquarters for, boy though I was, I wore the black kid drawers, tight and shining, which have been so frequently described.

They saw, too, the ridiculous trembling movements adored by Stella, for I had my reasons for shaking my poor curves beneath the torment. Ah, the wretch! Never did she whip with a more perfect mastery of her art. To say good-bye, she wrote an unforgettable "P. P. C." upon my martyred beam-end.

The old gentlemen saw that for me all feelings of shame were of no account, so great was my pain and terror.

All these things they could see. and hear and it appears that they both looked and listened with prodigious amusement and satisfaction. Possibly their senile lusts were stimulated by the scene? Ah, the monsters!

On being permitted to regain my chair, I 246

seated myself astride across the seat, forgetful of my skirts and, resting my arms upon the chair's back, buried my face in my shame and misery, crying as though my heart would break.

This was a fresh opportunity for the mirth of the company who did not fail to take advantage of it.

I suddenly heard the voice of Lady Flayskin pronounce my name in tones sharper and more bitter than verjuice.

"Alice!"

I quickly assumed a more feminine attitude, especially as I had had another reminder of my momentary forgetfulness, even more disagreeable than the voice of her ladyship. In leaning forward over the chair's back, I had broken one of my staybusk. A sharp end consequently stuck into my stomach, causing me horrible agony. I dared not make a movement now.

Conversation was resumed. The company appeared to be in excellent, even tumultuous spirits. The ingredients for making punch were brought in.

Mr. Gostock stepped forward in his usual solemn manner and undertook to superintend themixing. Night had fallen, but Stella declared that obscurity in the room would be vastly more amusing than artificial light. Naturally the wishes of the little chit were laws for her husband, and darkness accordingly reigned, broken by the flickering green and blue flames from the ignited rum, uncertain ghoulish dimness.

In this half-light, transpired scenes of an extraordinary nature. Mistresses and servants circulated swiftly among us pupils and in less time almost than it takes to relate, had stripped us naked, boys and girls alike, in spite of our resistance and cries. I said "naked," but I should explain that for the moment they did not remove that black, glazed kid combination; the skin-tight garment which revealed, rather than concealed our youthful forms; nor our stockings, or high-heeled boots.

We were pushed towards the table on which stood the flaming punchbowl and each of us was bidden to drink amid those infernal flames to the health of the bride.

How long drinking and singing continued, I hardly know. Nor do I know to what cause to attribute the strangely lascivious desires nor the mad excitement which transformed the girls into furies and the boys into satyrs.

Had the punch been drugged?

Had the moral American, highly respected Mr. Gostock, president of numerous societies for the promotion of public morality, mingled therein stimulating cantharides or some potent phosphoric acid? I know not. The fact remains that our movements became of the wildest and most unbridled order. The strangest fancies seized us in a grip there was no resisting and drew us, unwilling and yet willing, towards a seething vortex of obscenity that absorbed us, sucked us down, one and all.

No pen can write what passed in Stella's drawing-room on the evening of her weddingday. No writer would dare to paint in detail that unforgettable night of triumphant vice, that mad delirum which cast us into the arms of grizzled patriarchs, which gave us naked, yet unashamed, into the hands, sheathed in black glazed kid, of fair society ladies…

Eight months!

Eight months have already passed since the death of my father. I still wear mourning for him and I still wear the dishonouring garb of Lady Flayskin's highly select establishment.

Seven months have passed since I slept under this roof for the first time.

Sometimes during the night, stifled laughter from the girl's dormitory comes through the thin partition and awakes me. I fall again into a fitful slumber disturbed by bad dreams. I think I am being done to death by a goblin who sits upon my body and gnaws it. I awake and 250

find that the busk of my corset is sticking into my stomach.

My neighbour's voice comes to me in a whisper from the next bed.

"Will you play?" he asks.

Although I reply in the negative, he raises my bedclothes and slips into my bed. I am obliged to submit silently to his repugnant contact, for should I occasion a quarrel, my companion would perhaps receive the whip and I should certainly be flogged.

For such was the "distributive justice" of Lady Flayskin.

Nor did she ever fail in her preliminary lectures to insert some fine sentiments regarding the duties of bonne camaraderie.

I shudder yet as I think of the deeds that fair-sounding expression was employed to cover in the Flayskin Academy. And many a sun has set since those far-off days.

One memorable morning, a servant entered the school-room with a note for Mrs. Stuart.

The mistress put her spectacles on her thin nose and read the short missive with an air of astonishment. I saw her read it trough a second time and then sign to Mrs. Eagle who likewise showed extreme surprise at the communication. I was idly contrasting the leanness of Mrs. Stuart with the plumpness of Mrs. Eagle, who never resembled an eagle less than at that moment, in her goggle-eyed, red-cheeked astonishment, when I heard my name called by the thin governess.

"Jimmy, come here!"

Had a thunderbolt burst at my feet, I could hardly have felt more astonishment than I did at that moment. Fer seven months I had not been addressed by my own boyish name. Why was I not "Alice?" Why was I a boy again?

So intense were my feelings, that I found it impossible to do otherwise than burst into tears. I made no attempt to obey the summons. My schoolfellows laughed, but I did not mind that. What could it mean?

My attitude was naturally a source of curiosity to my class, but actually aroused no severe reprimand on th, part af the governesses whose order I had completely ignored. Finally Mrs. Eagle, after renewed consultation with Mrs. Stuart, came to me. The fat little creature appeared in a state of great excitement and proceeded to bundle me out of the schoolroom.

Leading me through the corridors and upstairs to the dormitory, she proceeded to undress me with much show of haste. I resigned myself to this treatment with very good grace, but hardly knew if I was awake or dreaming when a servant entered with a parcel containing all the garments I had worn on entering the school, when still a boy. I saw the broad-toed serviceable shoes in which I had run so fast in other days, excellent, strong and com fortable shoes. Then I saw my knickerbockers and my little sailor's reefer and cap.