Anonymous - The Altar of Venus

I watched with bated breath, frozen, incapable of movement, my eyes glued to the tiny aperture.

Five minutes of more humiliation lasted. I perceived his body stiffen out in response to orgastic reactions; he forced as much of his cock into her mouth as he could and held her head still. From his rigid posture and the strained expression on his face, I knew that he was ejacu-lasting in her mouth. I heard some choking, gasping sounds, saw her eyes roll upward and fix themselves on his face and on her own countenance, pitifully pallid and distorted, such an expression of hate as I have seldom seen reflected on a woman's face.

His hands relaxed their grasp on her tresses, and he withdrew his cock from her mouth. It had already begun to lose its rigidity and was beginning to sag downward. 'As soon as she was released, she sank down on her hands and knees and began spitting out great mouthfuls of slimy fluid.

Paying no more attention to her, the man buttoned up his clothes, threw a few coins on the bed, and walked out.

She remained on the floor for several minutes after he had gone, spitting and hawking, then dragging herself to her feet, she went to a corner of the room beyond my range of sight. But I did not need to see to know what she was doing for the sound of splashing water, followed by a long period of gargling and spitting, spoke plainly enough of her effort to cleanse her mouth of the pollution to which it had been subjected. When she was again in my line of vision, she undressed and put on her nightgown. As she {stepped to the side of the bed, her eyes fell on the coins which were still lying there. She picked them up, looked at them pensively for a moment, and then hurled them across the room. The next instant, the room was plungled into darkness. With muscles cramped and aching from uncomfortable posture, I too, slipped into bed, to lie awake until daylight, reviewing the sordid drama I had witnessed.

At the age of twenty-one, my naturally active disposition, coupled with requirements for cash now considerably in excess of the allowance provided by my father, impelled me to begin thinking of making my own living.

My father would have preferred that I continue my schooling a few years longer, but I was not of a very studious nature, and when he saw that I was determined he interposed no further objection and suggested a junior clerkship with the firm in which he was interested. This would have been an advantageous arrangement in many senses, but to me it had inconveniences. My father and I were of distinctly different types. His ideas were strict and inclined toward the puritanical. His constant reproval of what he considered dissipations on my part annoyed me vastly and interferred with my pleasure. The truth is, he never knew the half, but what he did know or guess was enough to maintain between us a certain amount of animosity. I was headstrong, resentful of any restraint and not wishing to be too closely subjected to his observation, declined the opportunity and announced an intention of finding something for myself. His skeptical attitude as to my capability to do this stung my pride, and made me even more de? termined.

For weeks I assiduously answered advertisements with no other results than a few fruitless interviews with firms which invariably required services of a nature which a lack of experience disqualified me from fulfilling, and then, when I was about ready to give up in despair, my efforts were rewarded. I was summoned to and obtained employment in the office of a well

known financier, a man whose. diversified interests extended across half the globe; banks in England and Scotland, diamond mines in Africa, railroads in South America. I was employed to act in capacity of personal assistant to this man, A little which though flattering of sound turned out in reality to mean nothing more than I was sort of glorified office boy and messenger. Nevertheless, the fact that my duties kept me in personal contact with the great man, gave me a certain prestige not enjoyed by other employees, most of whom occupied positions of far greater importance.

My employer turned out to be a man of quick and irrasible temper. His depreciative, and often unnecessarily offensive criticisms soon inspired me with a cordial dislike for him. However, I put forth my best efforts, constantly endeavoring to please him, and before long I began to sense the fact that I was rising in his estimation. Within a short time more important duties were being confided to me, though curiously enough, as his confidence in me increased, my antipathy toward him also grew space and I came to despise him whole heartedly for his arrogance and boorish-ness.

One afternoon when I returned after executing an errand which had taken me to a distant part of the city I saw a young woman leaving his

office. With an ever appreciative eye for feminine pulchritude, I appraised her trim figure, gowned with the simple elegance which bespeaks both taste and wealth. My gaze, starting at the faultlessly shod little feet traveled upward, and rested on a face of such marvelous beauty as had seldom been my lot to behold.

I have always been a bit more partial to brunettes, than to light complected women, influenced possibly by the popular superstitution that brunettes are more passionate than blonds, a supposition which experience has demonstrated to me without foundation. In this instance however, my inclinations suffered a sudden reversal. The young woman on whom my attention was blond. A blond whose skin was the texture of flawless immaculate ivory; whose tresses, visible below the brim of a fashionable little toque, clung around her ears and neck in ringlets of spun gold and in whose violet tinted eyes was reflected all the glorious splendor of ardent young womanhood. In brief the most exquisite, the daintiest, the most seductive bit of feminity imaginable.

For a few fleeting moments only was I permitted to regale my eyes with this delectable vision, and then it passed from my view.

"Who is she?" I gasped, addressing my inquiry to a nearby clerk.

The fellow turned a fishy eye on me and responded superciliously:

"No! If I knew I wouldn't be asking. Who is she?"

"She's the chiefs wife."

More questioning of other employees evoked supplementary information. Our employer had married this girl about four years previously; she was of titled parentage and in her own rights.

My admiration, based on nothing more than one brief glimpse, grew to infatuation. Past loves faded into insignificance, and never did I more ardently long to possess a woman than I did this one. As my mind became more and more obcessed with the infatuation, my dislike for the man who was the rightful possessor of this gem of loveliness increased and for the first time in my life I felt the stinging lash of dominating, unrestrainable jealousy.

I learned that on some occasions she came to the office, and day by day I looked forward to another glimpse of her, with hungry anticipation. It was two months before the longing was gratified, and then I saw her again. She was, or so seemed to me, even more lovely than I had first imagined and so rapt was I in the contemplation that my attitude was observed by other employees and after she had gone I was forced to listen to many jibing witicisms.

During several succeeding weeks I ceaselessly dreamed and thought of this woman, not with exception or hope, but with that blind adoration which finds its only solace in silent, unrequited worship. I had brief glimpses of her once or twice a month, and ultimately it seemed to me that as her glance momentarily met mine, there was an expression of understanding in it, as though she felt, or divined my adoration.

I had been working for nearly a year when my employer summoned me to his office one afternoon.

"Gilbert, here is a little matter I want you to take care of. The wife's private secretary is away on a vacation, and until the girl returns, I have instructed her to send for you once a week to assist her with the household accounts.