Anonymous - Maude Cameron And Her Guardian

With a wave of his cigar, he interrupted this dissertation by curtly interposing, “ But since you have already shown that you can cook very well and have told me that you have the other virtues, such as sewing and the like, there is really no need to engage a housekeeper. And you are a grown girl by now, quite ready to take care of yourself, I am certain. However, it strikes me that perhaps in view of your father’ s straitened circumstances, your wardrobe will probably be in need of replenishing. So early next week we shall go into town and try to rectify this. I shall buy you some pretty things which will make you even more attractive than you are now.”

At this, Maude’ s lovely, wistful face shone with pleasure: “ Oh, sir, you are very kind and flattering, and I shall do my best to please you.”

“ In all ways except refusing to share my bed, eh?” he sarcastically intervened. At once a vivid blush inflamed Maude’ s soft pink cheeks and she turned her head away, striving to maintain control as she replied in a low voice, “ But you know that that is impossible, sir. I cannot give myself to anyone until I am married. That is what Father brought me up to understand. You certainly cannot hold it against me, sir, that I am a good girl”

“ No. Not at all. Now, now, perhaps if the weather is fair this afternoon, we shall take a little ride around the vicinity and show you the sights, which you only saw in part yesterday upon your arrival.”

And so that afternoon he hitched up the little mare and took his charming blonde ward for a leisurely drive. There followed a nap, and then Maude further exemplified her culinary skill by preparing an excellent dinner for him. In all things Charles Cameron was well pleased with his unexpected acquisition. He had now at his disposal a charming, beautiful and desirable young girl who would fill the role of housekeeper admirably, thereby making his lonely stay in the summer house a highly enjoyable prospect in the months ahead. And if, as he surmised, he could lead her to the surrender of her person, he would have acquired a voluptuous young mistress in whom he might inculcate all those exquisitely libidinous traits which in his opinion a complaisant inamorata should possess.

On Tuesday of the following week, Charles Cameron took his lovely ward into town and to the shop managed by a Mrs. Evelyn Standish. It was an elegant dressmaking shop, which sold in addition many intimate articles of ladies’ apparel, including expensive French lingerie. Evelyn Standish herself was a widow of about thirty- seven, with chestnut hair piled in an imposing pompadour, of medium height and with a superbly buxom figure and a lovely if somewhat petulant face. She had already remarked on his having become a resident of this placid little English town and when he entered the shop in company with the blushing Maude, she herself hastened to wait on him rather than have her sales clerk, a Miss Dorothy Trenchard, do so. She found Charles Cameron dashingly virile and would not have found it amiss if he were to entertain clandestine desires in her direction. As a matter of fact, Charles Cameron had noticed her quite tempting and mature charms long before this, and might well have paid court to the lady had it not been for the unexpected arrival of Douglas Rivers’ only child.

Charles Cameron bowed politely, explained briefly that he wished his ward Maude to acquire such articles for the replenishing of her wardrobe as she felt desirable, but that he himself had a few particular notions as to styles. Maude moved away, her blushes deepening at the thought of having a man discuss openly with a stranger those articles of wearing which should be seen only by a husband or by oneself in the privacy of one’ s boudoir or toilette was highly embarrassing to her virginal modesty. As for Evelyn Standish herself, what Charles Cameron had to say as to what he thought Maude’ s undergarments should be like heightened her own color and titillated her interest in the suave, handsome, mature bachelor even more.

“ Besides frocks, which should be of lawn or muslin and decorously cut,” he carefully explained, “ I should like for you to select for her a kind of school tunic and bloomers to match, the kind such as young ladies would wear in a private school.”

“ I perfectly understand, Mr. Cameron.”

“ Very good. Then a supply of camisoles, new stays, several of the most attractive and flimsiest petticoats you have in stock, and then of course stockings. Elegant black silk from France would be my preference.”

Evelyn Standish inclined her head. Regardless of the rather wide degree of impropriety which such a selection of intimate apparel for Charles Cameron’ s ward entailed, the order represented a very handsome profit and she was eager to serve him well. When he looked stern, as he did now, he became even more attractive, and the lonely, attractive widow saw herself- such is a woman’ s folly!- in Maude’ s place in that household and enviously wished that it were she and not the golden haired girl for whom Charles Cameron were procuring this new wardrobe.

“ Then, as to knickers and drawers,” he continued, eyeing her levelly, as he touched upon a topic which most men of that day and age would have hemmed and hawed about, “ I wish you to take my ward’ s measurements exactly, for I desire these garments, those which touch the actual skin itself, to be as tight and snug a fit as possible. Also, I wish to have lace flounces at the hems and about the waistband, too, if you please.”

“ Certainly, sir. I have just received from Paris a large shipment of very attractive merchandise of that nature. I will see to it myself personally that Miss Maude is a total credit to you.”

“ And to herself as well, Mrs. Standish,” he chuckled. “ Now, then, let me see. Oh, yes- several pairs of pumps. I consider these button shoes ugly and they do not enhance the molding of the foot or ankle in the least. Do you not agree?”

Evelyn Standish, who herself had been a model of propriety until her husband’ s death- loneliness does much to make the fortress of a woman’ s virtue crumble- found herself agreeing enthusiastically with her astoundingly forthright bachelor visitor and customer.

“ Oh, to be sure. I have just the thing. However, if Miss Maude is unaccustomed to wearing pumps with narrow heels, she may require some practice at it.”

“ She will have it,” he promised, and there was a ring of authority in his voice which made Maude turn and eye him in surprise, even though she had not heard everything that he had said.

“ Then I leave her to your care. I shall return in about an hour, by which time I shall hope you will have taken her measurements and have decided on those articles which I have already mentioned. You will put them on my bill, and remittance will be prompt.”

“ Oh, sir,” Evelyn Standish beamed, “ There is no question as to your credit. I am not a mercenary tradesperson. I wish only to serve you and your charming ward to the best of my humble ability.”

“ Then you will please me very greatly by paying particular attention to what I have said about the snugness of fit and the embellishment of laces and ruffles,” he warned. Then, with a courtly inclination of his head, he left the shop.

He returned somewhat after the hour, to find his ward blushing vividly, while the admiring sales clerk and her employer busily engaged themselves in wrapping and packing the purchases which were to be charged to Charles Cameron’ s account. He took them out to the surrey, and as a final gift for Maude herself, bought her a pink parasol. The lovely girl did not know what to make of so much luxury and stammered on the way to the surrey, “ Oh, Mr. Cameron, I shall never be able to repay you for all this. I have never had so many beautiful things.. And they are all so expensive, too. I should not dare to wear them.”