Anonymous - Grushenka. Three Times a Woman

He began to make love to his prisoners again, as he had been in the habit of doing when he had no whore who enticed him. Grushenka would hear, of Bourse, that he was untrue to her, and would make scenes about it. Simultaneously she spoke with him about the disorderly houses in Moscow, how excellent that business was and how little were the bribes which he collected from them. Soon she approached him directly as to whether it would not be a good idea to run a whorehouse himself, give it his whole protection, close all the other ones and put her in charge of it. He would not listen to this plan because he was not interested very much in increasing his wealth. But when she painted, in the brightest colors, how he would be master of the house, how she would always provide him with very young girls who would put on great parties for him, he succumbed to her wiles and told her to go ahead and do what she liked. But she was to understand that he had no money whatsoever and that she would have to put the house on its feet by herself. She almost loved him for that, and got busy at once. Grushenka acquired a house in the best neighborhood, where, without the captain's protection, nobody would have dared open an establishment of that kind. The house, surrounded by a small garden in the front and by a large one in the back, consisted of three floors. The upper floors contained about a dozen rooms each, while the ground floor had a magnificent dining room and four or five very spacious drawing-rooms, all leading to a big front hall. Grushenka modeled the whole mansion after the layout of the best whorehouse in Rome, which she had visited quite often when she wanted a young girl to make love to her. She resolved that it would be best for her to employ only serf-girls, whom she could train for her purposes without having to consider their wishes. She prepared all this without the captain's knowledge. And she had to make more raids on his cash-box, because she furnished her establishment with the best. There were a colorful carriage and four horses, a few stable men, an old housekeeper and six sturdy peasant maids, lovely furniture and, of course, a well-selected choice of four-poster beds with canopies and silk sheets. All this assembled, she left the captain, settled down in the big house and began leisurely to buy her girls.

We see her now, going in her own carriage, to all parts of Moscow, looking over features and shapes the way Katerina had done about ten years before in order to buy her for Nelidova. But she had it easier than Katerina, because she did not have to look for any special type of girl; she needed girls of all types and shapes to satisfy the taste of her prospective customers. The hunger in the poor sections of Moscow was responsible for her best finds. Not only foster-parents but also parents would flock to her with their daughters. The girls, on their part, were delighted to enter the services of so fine and elegant a lady, where they would be safe from starvation. Grushenka would send word through her housekeeper to one of the poorer streets that she was willing buy a few young girls, between fifteen and twenty years of age, for her private service. She would be told where-for example, in the back room of a certain inn -she could look over the merchandise. When her elegant carriage rolled into the street, there would be great excitement, the mothers flocking around her, kissing the hem of her garments and imploring her to take their daughters. After the near-riot of her arrival was over, Grushenka would be led into a large room, filled with twenty to thirty girls, all in rags, dirty and smelly. The chatter and shouting of the parents, anxious to sell, would make it impossible for her to select at ease. The first few times she was so helpless against all this that she left without making an attempt to look the girls over. Throwing on the ground alms for which the mob scrambled gave her the opportunity to leave quickly. But then she found a better way; she removed all the parents from the room, resolutely locked the door from inside and went about her task in a businesslike way. The girls had to throw off their rags. Those she disliked she sent from the room, keeping the three or four who seemed likely. She submitted these to the most rigorous examination. Long hair, beautiful features, perfect teeth, well-formed breasts and small, juicy love-nests were not the only requirements. She wanted girls who showed vitality and strong resistance. She took them over her lap, she had them open up, she played with the tickler and watched the reaction. She pinched them with sharp nails on the inside of the thighs, and, when they showed any softness, she gave them a couple of coins and sent them away. For those she selected, she made a hard bargain, clothed them in garments which she had brought for that purpose and took them right away with her. After a meal and a bath in her mansion, she administered the first whipping herself. She took this very seriously. It was a further try-out as to whether the girl was to make good. She did not take them down to the black chamber, which she had found in the house when she had bought it from an aristocrat. Nor did she tie them. She put them on the elegant bed which would be theirs for the love-business later on, and, under the threat of sending them back, made them expose those parts of their bodies which she wanted to hurt with the whip. All of the girls had been beaten before, but they mostly had received rough blows and kicks and only few of them had been submitted to a skillful whipping by the leather whip. After applying stinging blows on their buttocks and between their thighs, Grushenka would make them get up, stand erect, and order them to hold their breasts from underneath, ready to receive punishment. Those who complied were not touched at all, but those who were not ready to follow this order would feel the whip again and again on their backs until complete submission was affected. Grushenka had lost her softness; she had forgotten the fear and terror of her own youth. And this made her a success. When she had in this way collected about fifteen girls, she began careful instructions on how to keep the body clean and the nails in perfect shape, how to smile and to walk, how to eat and to talk. She succeeded quickly, especially because she had the most magnificent clothes made for her charges, and fine clothes inspire every woman to refined behavior. Satisfied with this she also gave them special and delicate instructions in how to handle and satisfy the men, instructions which, if repeated here, would make a whole chapter by itself. She spoke to attentive but bewildered girls. They heard the words but did not get the meaning in full, for it turned out that one-third of her fifteen girls were still virgins.

If they had been poked previously at all, they had just lain still when the rough men of their sections were working on them. They did not understand yet how there can be a great difference between an expert courtesan and a peasant girl who just holds her legs open. They should know better soon. When Grushenka felt that she was ready, she held the great and boisterous opening of her establishment.

According to the custom of her time, she had an invitation printed which was quite a document, prettily lithographed and adorned with vignettes displaying love scenes. Here you could read that the famous Madame Grushenka Pawlovsk, just returned from an extensive tour over Europe in search of new and never-dreamed-of sex excitements, was inviting the Honorable Dukes, Counts and Barons for the great opening of her establishment. Here the customer, from the moment that he passed the threshold, would be drowned in an ocean of pleasure, etc., etc., followed by the most startling announcement, namely, that for the opening gala banquet, no charge would be made! On this night, every one-of-the famous beauties would satisfy every whim free of charge and a free lottery would be played, the prizes being five virgins to be raped by the winners! Here-according to the style of the time-a special specification also was made: that the winners could deflower their prizes either in private chambers or “in state.”