Anonymous - Maude Cameron And Her Guardian

Listening intently, he could at once detect that Maude was flustered by his unexpected visit, for he heard movements, a little gasp, and then after a few moments a quavering gasp, “ Who is it?”

The sly little minx, he told himself with a grin. She intends to play Miss Innocent to the very hilt. So much the better! “ It is I, Charles Cameron,” he called sternly. “ Open the door at once.”

“ Yes, Mr. Cameron. I- I was just going to bed.” He heard the stammered and obviously frightened reply, closer to the door this time. He waited, standing patiently and erect as befitted a mature guardian of so tender a ward, until at last he heard the bolt slip back and the door opened.

Maude was absolutely breathtaking, as she stood there blushingly, her eyes big and round as saucers. Over her nightgown she had hurriedly drawn a robe of rather dull grey cotton twill and had belted it circumspectly. Her golden hair was tousled, indicating that she had gotten out of bed in a hurry.

“ Whatever is it, Mr. Cameron?” she ingenuously demanded.

“ I am sorry to see that on your very first day in my house, my dear, you have seen fit to disobey me,” was the stern rejoinder.

“ But I don’ t understand what you’ re saying, Mr. Cameron!” the lovely blue- eyed face expressed wonder and not a little apprehension. “ I read a little bit, and I was just now going to bed when you knocked.”

“ I am quite certain that is true, my dear, but you remember that I expressly forbade you the use of books which are far beyond your years and which are kept under lock and key in a particular space in my library.”

“ Oh, I remember that you said that, Mr. Cameron, and I took pains not to disobey you, truly I did,” she hastened to explain. “ I was reading a novel by Bertha Southworth. I brought it off to bed with me- perhaps I shouldn’ t have and I’ m sorry.”

“ It is not with that book I am concerned, Maude. Let me see for myself.” With this lie walked toward the bed, and Maude hastened after him, wringing her soft little hands, her brows arched and her rosy mouth a delicious circle of adolescent apprehension.

“ But I am telling you the truth, Mr. Cameron,” her voice nervously persisted. “ I- I put the book under my pillow, you see.”

“ I told you that I am not concerned with that innocuous piece of trash. But one of my other books is missing, and I have reason to suspect it may be concealed somewhere in this room,” and with this he reached under the two fluffed- up pillows and drew out the book to which his ward had referred.

“ There! You see?” she triumphantly exclaimed.

“ Yes, I see the one but not the other. Let us have a more extensive look, if you don’ t object, Maude,” he retorted, and he began to thrust his hands down beneath the covers which she had drawn up almost to the pillows. Maude bit her lip and stared at him with growing alarm. He felt a bulge over to the side of the bed, and his fingers at last encountered the volume and drew it forth.

“ And what do you say to this, pray?” he confronted her, holding up the telltale book in his right hand.

Maude was speechless in her fright at having been found out both in deception and a lie. “ My gracious,” she tried her best to recover her aplomb. “ I must have brought that along and never noticed. Truly, that’ s how it happened.”

“ I should be inclined to believe that, Maude, if it had not been necessary for you to obtain that book by taking down the key, opened the bookcase, and selected it from among the various shelves and their contents,” he said deliberately. “ And I daresay that you took pains to glance through the other books, all of which were forbidden to you. This is a fine way to repay my kindness in taking you in as my ward, you know.”

The lovely blonde was very nearly in tears, and with clasped hands before her, her lips trembling, she stammered an almost inarticulate explanation which he impatiently silenced with a wave of his hand: “ Do not try to add to the seriousness of your offense by inventing implausible explanations, my dear. I can see exactly what you have done, against my express request. I am afraid I shall have to punish you, Maude. If I am to be your guardian and have every authority over you, you must allow me to regulate your conduct as I see fit, being many years your elder. Now, to temper the enormity of your fault with your confession, which might lead me to leniency with you, I will ask you if it is not true that you took my remark about the forbidden case as a kind of challenge and decided you would see if you could get away with it. Isn’ t that so?”

He stared at her levelly, until her blushes spread down to her lovely rounded throat, and he watched her nod silently. By that nod, of course, she was delivering herself up to his tender mercies, and nothing could have suited him more at this moment. The robe did not quite conceal the provocative dishabille of her thin, clinging, lawn nightgown. It seemed to him that her bosom almost boldly thrust out into the nightgown, making her beauty even more tempting than if she had been naked. As a voluptuary, he savored both her scanty attire and her mounting distress at the thought of being punished, particularly the uncertainty of what form that punishment was going to take. And a moment late she confirmed his suspicion in this regard by stammering, “ Oh, truly I did not intend to disobey you, Mr. Cameron. Won’ t you please say you forgive me if I promise very sincerely never to do it again? Oh- oh- how are you going to punish me? When you look at me that way, I am so afraid, Mr. Cameron.” He did not answer her question directly, but countered with a question in turn: “ Do you agree that you deserve chastisement for disobeying me, your guardian?” The enchanting young blonde bit her lips nervously, then ruefully nodded.

“ Very well, then, Maude, you must be aware that you have committed several very naughty acts, the very first of which was going against my wishes and opening the forbidden bookcase. Then you had the temerity to lie to me by letting me believe that you were reading a novel by Bertha Southworth. And finally, although you have not yet admitted it, you decided that you would test my good nature by promptly doing what I had expressly forbidden you to do- three quite serious faults. The question remains, therefore, only to settle your punishment. And I think, since this is your first occasion to test my authority, that I shall be lenient.”

“ Oh, thank you, Mr. Cameron,” the golden- haired girl gasped with relief.

“ I think, Maude,” he resumed, deliberately choosing his words and maintaining constantly his stem demeanor for the purpose of dominating this lovely prize, “ I shall punish you for pilfering, and since those soft little hands of yours were the guilty offenders, opening the forbidden bookcase and taking out one of the books you were not meant to read, I shall direct that chastisement to them. Come stand in the center of the room and hold out your left hand.”

With this he moved away and waited for her to approach. His eyes devoured her delicious shrinking figure as she slowly moved towards him, discerning the mouthwatering curves of her bosom and hips through the robe and the nightgown beneath. Her pretty little feet were bare, and he did not overlook their chiseled loveliness and perfection of form, with dainty, straight little toes and elegant and patrician arch and gently rounded heel.

“ Now, then, Maude,” he decreed, “ hold out your left hand with the palm out toward me and put your other hand behind your back and do not dare to take your other hand away until I say you may.” With this, he drew from the pocket of his dressing gown the flexible leafcutter and grasped it by the point. Maude’ s large blue eyes widened with alarm at the sight of this wicked little implement and she uttered a stifled little gasp.