Anonymous - The Altar of Venus

The electrical effect of this communication upon me may be easily imagined. At last! An opportunity to be near, if but a few moments to the hitherto unapproachable Goddess of my dreams. I could scarcely conceal my elation as I assured him I would be delightful to be of service to his wife. But how delightful he certainly did not suspect.

It must not be supposed that I was beguiling myself with any fantastic hopes. No; for once, and despite the success with which most of my

previous amorous campaigns had been waged, I was infatuated with a woman I considered far beyond my reach. To me she was little less than a deity; the possibility that she might descend into my sphere of life and being was not entertained even in my wildest dreams. The lines of caste are well defined in England. She was the essence of aristrocracy; I was a plebian, completely outside her world. I expected nothing.

Six days later a message was laid on my desk requesting me to report at the house.

A taxi conveyed me through the city's most exclusive residential section, along flower bordered streets under leafy bowers of foliage, and I shortly ha,d my first glirtipse of my employer's residence. It was a veritable castle of stone architecture, almost concealed under climbing ivy beautiful vines and trees.

In answer to the clang of a .heavy brass knocker, appeared a trim, luscious little maid gowned in a short tylack dress, over which a white lace edged apron was neatly draped. Her plump legs were admirably displayed in glistening silk and these, together with other obvious charms would have captured my heart in a minute, if it had not been otherwise occupied to fullest capacity.

Upon being informed of my identity, she ushered me into a reception hall, and while I gazed with admiration at the tasteful splendor, she went to notify her mistress of my presence.

On the interview which followed I shall dwell but briefly for intoxicatingly pleasurable as it was to me nothing transpired which fits well into this naughty biography. In the intimacy of the small study to which my employer's wife conducted me, she seemed more delectable, and desirable than ever, and it was with the greatest delight I found that my presence would be needed once a week during the absence of the secretary. The work was nothing more arduous than the figuring of domestic accounts, the writing and recording of checks issued in payment to merchants, and represented less than two hours of time. At its conclusion she called the maid requesting that I be served with refreshments, and shortly thereafter I departed. During the interval we had been together her attitude toward me had been friendly, but entirely impersonal.

Four successive visits transpired, during which I feasted my eyes and tortured my soul with more or less surreptitious contemplations of her charms. On the fifth, last, and epochal occasion of our meetings, I was conducted into the little private study as previously and was soon engaged in putting the domestic accounts in order. It was to be my last visit, for the absent secretary was returning in a few days, and there would be no further occasion for my presence. The object of my idolatry entered the room and seating herself in a huge leather cushioned chair near me, began to look over the tradesmen's bills, initialing them one by one, and handing them to me to be recorded for payment. /

Glinting under the rays of sunlight which filtered into the room, through the interstices of lace curtains, golden ringlets of hair, tied with a single ribbon at the base of her neck, rippled down over shoulders and back in riotous profusion. Draped loosely about her body, was a dressing gown or lounging robe of black velvet, trimmed with a fringe of pure white ermine down the front and around hem, sleeves, and neck. This strikingly beautiful garment was not buttoned, but was sustained with a silken girdle carelessly knotted about her waist. In a sitting posture the lower edge of this robe hung just below her knees, and her legs, visible from the knees down, were clad in the sheerest of silken hose through whose translucent weave, the snowy whiteness of flesh beneath was discernible.

The combination of circumstances that day seemed to have been arranged painstakingly by Destiny. Or did the lady herself have a hand in the arranging?

The intimate garment, her closer than usual proximity, 4;he casual touch of a strand of hair light as thistle down against my cheek as the leaned over me to make an observation about an entry in the small ledger, all contributed to provoke in me a veritable torment. The room was scented by some perfumed essence emanating from her hair, body and garment, the air was vibrant with an undefined but palpable atmosphere of eroticism.

The chair in which she was sitting was one of those heavily padded, amply built affairs with an inclined back. A slight frown passed across her face as she glanced over a bill from an establishment which supplied most of her wearing apparel. I paused, waiting for her to conclude her examination of the account and as I waited, my eyes fixed on her she changed her position slightly raising one of the silk clad legs across the knee of its companion.

In the position in which she was sitting, she was not fronting me directly but rather to one side. The movement she made in crossing her legs caused the folds of the lounging robe, loosely tied, to separate slightly and bulge outward above the cord around her waist. And through the aperture so fortuitously provided, immediately became visible an exquisitely rounded breast of alabaster whitness, crowned with a tiny rosebud nipple.

Seemingly she wore no undergarment beneath the fur trimmed rdbe! And as though this entrancing sight were not enough to suffocate me with emotion the raising of her leg had also elevated the border of the garment and above the purple silk band which supported her. hose, a brief space of naked thigh was visible. Those bits of white flesh held my gaze like magnets, and with my eyes first on one, then on the other oblivious tp everything else in the world, I continued to look, and as I looked a thought involuntarily formulated itself in my mind.

"I'd give a year of my life just to put my mouth on her cunt!"

A prolonged silence suddenly impressed itself upon gie and brought me back to earth. Guiltily I raised my eyes to hers. Those violet eyes instead of being fixed on the bill in her hands were contemplating me in a speculative, half sardonic manner.

Guessing that she was conscious to some extent of my emotion, the blood rushed to my face.

"What are you thinking about, Gilbert?" she asked dryly, while the ghost of a smile hovered about her lips.

She looked at me, apparently surprised at the

ingeniousness of my answer and then suddenly-broke into peals of silvery laughter. Relieved but still greatly embarrassed, I sat in silence, hardly daring to meet her gaze. When the laughter subsided she laid the bill down and murmured in a low, insinuating voice:

"Gilbert, what would you do for me?"

"Anything!" I answered fervently and without hesitation this time*

"Anything!"

"Anything?" and the word was repeated with a slow, deliberate insistence which I comprehended held some special significance.

I looked at her intently in an effort to divine her meaning, but though there was a smile on her lips the violet eyes were inscrutible.

"Anything!" I repeated, putting all the emphasis I could into the all embracing word.

There was an interval of silence, unbroken except for the tapping of the pencil she still held between her fingers, against the edge of the table. Her gaze now turned from me,, and through half closed eyes she seemed to be looking off into space lost in introspection. She had not changed her position, and though she must now have been aware that intimate portions of her body were visible to me she made no effort to conceal them from my view.