Anonumous: The prodigal virgin

“Oh-o-o-o-o-h-oh, God-Stanley-!” she gasped in a wee wail. “I-I didn’t m-mean-I didn’t realize-can you ever forgive me?”

“Precious numbskull,” he soothed, the tan of his face suffused with red, “it was just a joke on you. I let it happen-with delight, I assure you. You haven’t committed the crime of the ages. No longer ago than last week, when we were having a beach picnic in the moonlight, a young schoolgirl of this colony performed the same exploration on my body. And Mildred, sitting on my other side, observed it and smiled at me. But this girl of whom I speak did it deliberately, out of purely sensual curiosity, all the while continuing to show me the naked bust which had escaped from her little suit and which had produced that swelling in my bathing costume in the first place. “She was not sure of impunity at first-she’s only seventeen-and her movements were very furtive and slow. But she soon saw she could act as she liked and she was too absorbed to notice Mildred’s amused, sparkling eyes. She did not just touch and run, as you did, Maro. No, she grasped and toyed and fondled. But suddenly she withdrew her hand. She kissed me hotly and furtively on the thigh and she rolled over and buried her face in her arms. She was shaking like a leaf in the moonlight and Mildred vows she spent. And that same lady swears too that it was undoubtedly the first time this small but lascivious Betty had ever had the opportunity to touch such a nude affair, which may be correct.”

“Spent-sp-spent?” whispered Marion. “Oh, yes-oh-d-don’t t-tell me-I think I understand. But how could you and Mildred let that go on! I should have cried out if I had been there and I should have lunged at her!”

“It was by no means an unnatural thing for her to want to do, the sensual, curious child,” observed Stanley. “And so, when she found by slow experiment that it was permitted to her, she couldn’t resist-any more than I could. Yet I think this small Betty comes nearer to being in what we call a state of innocence than any other member of this group of young people.”

“Well, I don’t like it!” announced Marion. “You should all be ashamed-you and Mildred and the girl-and I’d have done something about it if I’d been there!”

“Who’s being possessive now?” he laughed far from ill pleased by the manifest but unconscious jealously which moved his sister-in-law a jealously of which he knew that even Mildred had not been entirely free at the time of the episode he had narrated, but which that charming wife of his had found provocative of sensuality rather than sadness.

But this reflection stirred him to emulate the frankness of this beautiful maiden and to try to make clear to her the psychology of an earlier topic. “You are speaking-and you’ve been pondering on the matter-of the way in which we kiss and fondle and take even greater liberties without regard for ties of marriage or kinship or anything else,” he said. “That is pretty nearly universal nowadays wherever young people, married or unwedded, get together with a party of friends or even with a few strangers scattered among them. I’m not claiming it’s pure joy for me to see Mildred’s lovely lips crushed against the mouth of another man in a kiss from which each of them draws pleasure. But there’s such a thing-it’s a bit of rather abstruse psychology, Maro-as finding a queer enjoyment in what is theoretically an outrage and a grievance.

“It’s certainly a brazen pilfering of my property by the man-a brazen delivery of it by Mildred-with no account taken of me in the transaction whatever. And the woman may as well find that-often without her being able to explain or analyze it-she gets a thrill out of being robbed of her exclusive rights to the man’s caresses and affection.

“There are plenty of cases in which this tendency to gain a perverse delight out of being outraged may grow to an extent which a maiden like you would find incredible. I have known-I know now-a very highly placed man who was visited at his home by an old college mate in whose utter reticence he thought he could confide, and he carried his naked and squealing young wife to the bed of his guest and left her there. I know another who performed the unspeakable act of drugging his own unmarried sister-with whom I’ve always thought him to be unconsciously in love-and allowing his closest male friend to help him strip her to the skin. And they made of it a rite lasting more than an hour, not counting the subsequent two or three hours during which, at some risk of the girl recovering sufficiently to know what was going on, the two rascals did everything except take her virginity.

“This first man-he’s a wealthy single man-whispered the tale to me himself at a club. And I hardly knew whether to feel the more flattered that he should so highly rate my trustworthiness or to feel insulted that he should feel I would not violently resent what he had done.”

Marion was squeezing her soft lips with the fingers of one hand as if to choke back agitated words. “What-oh, my God, how foul! What else did they do to her?” she whispered shakily.

“I’d better not tell you,” he said. “You’re pretty overwrought already, sweet sister. But what I am driving at is that all the sensuality which really sways the world in shot with perversity. And these chaps were not roughnecks at all but very respectable and respected citizens impelled by lust to sudden rampage.”

“Tell me,” he heard in a faint whisper.

“They removed their clothing,” he went on, “and they coiled her fingers about their excited members. They lay beside her, pressing her between them. They lay upon her. They rubbed their excited tools-“

“Stanley!” expostulated the girl feebly.

“-upon her naked body, he continued. “You’ve asked for this, Maro! They raised her loins and dragged her to the edge of her bed. Then they parted her legs to permit themselves to rub their stiff organs right in the groove of her sex. They laughed to see her face redden and her white body grow tense as what they were doing affected her nerves and gave her lecherous dreams even in her unbroken unconsciousness.

“The brother heard his maddened friend gasp out a plea that the girl should be violated and an offer of a fortune for the privilege. He laughed, more than half-crazed himself, and he vowed that he himself would give much more than that if he dared possess her.”

“No-no-no!” gasped the trembling Marion, her voice rising into a little shriek. “No more-don’t tell me more! It’s like a glimpse into the inferno of human-inhuman-foulness and brutality. Oh, Stanley, it hurts me somehow-wholly aside from shocking me unspeakably. For something of horror now seems to rest even upon the gentle, tender caresses which are so lovely since they lead to passion and passion leads to such excesses.”

“You’re passionate, aren’t you, old sweetness?” said Stanley happily. “I must confess that I didn’t think you were until I saw your marvelous response to my kisses.”

“Mildred says-“ whispered Marion shamefacedly.

She paused, hesitating, and then laid her lips to his ear. “She says I am very passionate by nature-like her-like our parents-like you. I don’t know how she knows or even whether she’s right. I didn’t know it myself. If she is correct-“ she breathed.

“Yes Mildred told me you would be a darling volcano if aroused,” he said indiscreetly. “She explained that she was sure you were passionate by nature.”

“How dare she tell you that and then go on to encourage us to be alone together and to pet!” cried Marion indignantly. “Why, it’s just as if she had said to you: ‘Here’s my hot-blooded young sister. Kiss and hug her and she’ll get very excited and you’ll see how very naughty she can be, though she poses as such a prim thing!’ I don’t think it was nice of her at all, really, I don’t.”