Augustus and Lady Maude Read online

  Raspail. What am I to deduce from it? I thought only a little longer and saw that, of course, I should lose my reason unless I took measures in good time. I have neither the means nor the leisure to have a shopgirl like Sian thrown into a reformatory for three or four years. I must act at once, or at the first propitious moment. I know there are rough fellows of a kind who may be bribed to assist one in these affairs. Two might hold her while I tightened the cord. Surely Julie would not refuse me after that? I paced up and down laying my plan. Then, past two in the morning, I could endure the uncertainty no more, for I was distracted at the thought of what Sian might be doing to Julie. I went back at dead of night to my hired room. Until daybreak I stared from the window into the brightly lit bedroom opposite. The two girls were sleeping, naked and head to tail.

  Presently they stirred and it was now Julie who first began to open the redhead's thighs with her fingers and to part Sian's bottom-cheeks. I will not tolerate it, Maude. I will be denied no longer. At the first opportunity I shall be avenged upon the young whore Sian! Augustus Anonymous Augustus and Lady Maude VII. Lady Maude to Mr. Bowler Garda, 17 June, p.m. Hotel Rialto, Venezia, per corriere espresso My dear Friend, I send this brief message by the most expeditious route and beg your assistance or advice. Matters concerning my cousin, Lord A, with which I lately acquainted you, have now assumed a much graver complexion. There is a girl by the name of Sian, employed in a menial capacity by one of your enterprises. Lord A believes she is a rival for the blond slut in whom he has so unwisely interested himself. With his nerves in their tender state, he vows to kill the other creature-the redhead Sian-by dramatic methods. Sensible people do not care, of course, if it pleases a nobleman to put to death a young bitch of her sort. But Lord A's neurasthenia has made his actions unpredictable. I do not think he would do the thing at all discreetly. In feet, I am almost sure he would make a public example of her. The police have always obliged in other matters but I do not think family influence and money could quieten the scandal if Lord A were to pinion Sian and hang her with a rope round her neck and keep her dancing on air half an hour. Too many gentlemen would want to “spectate” to hush it up. Now, my dear friend-I beg you-do think what may be done. The affair between the girls is certainly sapphic on the part of the wretched little Julie as well. You know how such girls may be quietly removed to other places- done away with, in the sense of being spirited away to some establishment where they will remain permanently. Can you not help us now? I will promise you a certain reward, in the gift of my father, that you have long coveted. There is a contract to be put out in the matter of equipping two mounted regiments who are ordered for viceregal duty in Calcutta. No man could furnish their horses so well as yourself. I am sure you take my meaning. I send this message by express, in the hands of a fellow whom I have trusted before.

  However, as one cannot be too careful in a matter of such delicacy, I have avoided “naming names”-even your own. And I sign myself only as your loyal and trusting friend. M.

  Anonymous

  Augustus and Lady Maude

  VIII. Mr. Bowler to R. L. Esq.

  Hotel Rialto, Venice Tuesday a.m., 18 June In strictest confidence The enclosed letter is from a lady of the first rank who stands high in my personal esteem. You will see at once, from the past services you have rendered me, the extent of the difficulty. I believe you will understand the nature of the means required to overcome it. I have marked on the enclosed street-map of the city the house where the two delinquents are to be found. In the light of certain favours you have enjoyed from me in the past-and which shall be repeated in the future-I call upon your assistance.

  You will need two of my stable-grooms, men who are not easily unnerved by squeals and imprecations. I suggest Withers and Platt.

  They will, however, want a gentleman of your standing to manage the affair. I suggest you let them have fun with both girls for an hour or two before the abduction. They cannot then tell tales without implicating themselves. Once the “packages” are securely “wrapped,” you may take them a mile or so and deliver them to my agent Jasper B- – in the London Road for shipment overseas. He will know what to do and will arrange their transportation. When you next visit the Bond Street branch of the City and Counties Bank, you will find 200 guineas has been placed to your account. You may also depend upon a certain subcontract in respect of leather for stable-whips.

  Withers has already assisted in the removal of Janet Bond, who threatened scandal after a few liberties with her person. I will write no more here, except to say that the first 200 guineas will be matched by the same sum again, from the family of the young gentleman, so soon as the two impediments have been removed. You see what will be done for you by those who hold your abilities in such esteem!

  H.B.

  IX. Lady Maude to Augustus

  Lago di Garda, 19 June My dear Augustus, I need not tell you with what care and concern I read your last letter. I scanned it through while lying upon the chaise-longue after breakfast, the coffee and oranges scarcely consumed. The events you described in those pages put me quite in a passion. I broke all the sticks of my fan, with which one wafts the cooler air from the open window. What am I to say, my beloved?

  You have grown to such an age and learnt so little-unless it be to endure a crise des nerfs at every setback. I beg that you will listen to me while there is still time. Neurasthenia is not the worst that may afflict a young gentleman of tender sensibilities in such a position as your own. Far worse is the storm of social scandal and ruin whose dark clouds I already see gathering about your head.

  You cannot-you must not-go on with these romantic absurdities involving common shopgirls and vulgar young trollops with whom you can have nothing in kind. You saw Julie and Sian having sex together in the lewdest manner. What else did you imagine of such hussies? Did you imagine that they would spend a quiet evening reading aloud the verses of Lord Tennyson or Mr. Longfellow to one another? Did you suppose they would crochet or embroider with eyes meekly cast down upon the hoops with which they worked? I trust you have learnt better, Augustus. We have waited quite five years to see you become decently attached to a young lady of your own class and condition. We have thus far waited in vain. The disorder of your venereal passions is, it appears to me, nothing short of pathological. I should imagine that there must be a term in medicine to describe your obsession with these common sluts. And if there is not such a term-then there ought to be.

  An Augustinian malaise. Now let me advise you, as a woman and as one of your own rank in society. You may enjoy such sluts as Julie, of course you may. That is every gentleman's privilege. But not as you might do. You must do it without this desperate infatuation and, if possible, invoke an air of moral probity. The art of social morality in England is simplicity itself. You may do whatever you choose to the girls and young women of the lower orders, provided you talk all the time about decency and respectability. If you wished only to enjoy a ride between Julie's legs, to fondle those saucy little bottom-curves of hers-above all to whip them soundly-you might do so with impunity. I will go further. You may do so to your heart's content and earn nothing but praise and reward from the justices and the clergy, even from your own wife and family. What is true morality, Gussie? It is certainly not the feeble mooning over sights seen through bedroom windows, nor this wish to exalt a randy little slut like Julie as the future Lady of Coombe. Nothing but scandal and disgrace attends such indiscretions. True morality is the removal of such a lewd little minx from her present corruption of such gentlemen as yourself to a penitentiary institution where she may serve three or four years under discipline. Ah, I hear you wail like a little boy that your toy would be taken from you by such methods! What a silly thing you are! Girls like Julie, in such reformatories, are always at the disposal of a gentleman of your rank who wishes to play the moralist with them. Present yourself at the gate and the gaoler will doff his cap to bow you through. I do not say that you ought not to chink a little silver
in his hand. He is a most worthy fellow, deserving whatever recognition of a financial kind you might care to bestow upon him. Believe me, my dear, it never comes amiss to spend a few guineas wisely. By such means trade will flourish and the respectability of society may be preserved without noise or scandal.

  I can assure you, upon the authority of my father and brothers who constitute a whole bench of magistrates, that there is a simple remedy when you wish to have your way with Julie or any other girl of her class. She has only to be removed to penitentiary training for three or four years and, as a magistrate yourself, you would find her constantly available to you. Examination and wholesome chastisement are the reasons given for taking down the knickers of such young wenches. You think she could never be guilty of an offence which would ensure her detention during a few years of your own pleasure?

  How wrong you are! Our good friends will convict her summarily of insulting behaviour-an insolent glance from Julie would suffice!-or threatening attitudes. No sooner would I make a request than the matters might be arranged. Now, Gussie, when the law of England can arrange such affairs of the heart for you, why must you continue to play at Tristan and Isolde with a grotesque young slut of Julie's sort? You and I, my dearest, have grown up closer than brother and sister in our affections. You must know, then, that I would not deceive you for the world. Can you believe that what I tell you now is part of some plot which finds me in league with the questionable Dr.

  Raspail? Even should you think so, I can prove my bona fides in a moment. Do, I beg you, have a word with our friend Lord Rupert N- -. You shall be a magistrate yourself next month if you murmur your desire to him. You may then spend every day or night of the week with a girl of Julie's kind behind the locked door of the reformatory discipline-room. I beg you will look at certain private records which Lord Rupert will show you in confidence at my request. Or else inquire of old Justice Snook and Master Miles. You will find what fun may be had with such girls as Julie in pursuit of law and decency. A certain price must be paid but most men would yearn for the chance to pay it. Having had some fun, you must exercise the bamboo cane upon the bare bottoms of fifteen-year-old reformatory tomboys like Michele Page, and Elaine, with Pauline her big sister, a plump slut of eighteen with a round face, blue eyes, and a coquettish chignon of fair hair. I assure you most would envy you the chance to have such a pair strapped on all fours over a couple of blocks, side by side.

  Would you not at least try the experiment of caning them soundly across their bare bottoms with the bamboo and then giving each sister a taste of the leather dog-whip? Faced with Elaine and Pauline over the blocks, no one will inquire what you may do to them first! No complaints are listened to from such delinquents. I can assure that no other magistrate nor even the Lord Chancellor himself would regret it if you had fun with two such bare-bottomed sisters, enjoying their tightness upon your manhood. A chastiser who has been seduced by the sight of such a pair of culprits will afterwards skin their backsides closely with his whip. You see? The world would not expect you to be other than a man from the waist down. There is no prying into such trivial lapses, for which the sight of Pauline's plump bare buttocks or Elaine's tomboy bottom-cheeks must be held to blame. Even the fact that you vaselined young Elaine would be no crime. Best of all, such moral discipline with bamboo and lash is not only sanctioned by the law in such places. It is rewarded by public esteem. The stricter the method- the more severe the chastisement of Julie or Pauline- the higher will be your reputation as a pillar of social order and probity. Can you be better employed than in dealing with such girls?

  Now, tell me true, my dear, does not Julie belong to this class of delinquent? Might you not ease yourself of your present torment by having her confined in such a place and made available for whatever treatment you wished her to undergo at your hands? Far from being reproached by the world-as you will be if you continue with your present infatuation-you might earn the reward of virtue and esteem.

  You will perhaps think me harsh and without finer sentiments in the matter. I beg you, though, to consider this. You desire Julie, do you not? Yet you have no present hope of attaining your goal. With equal longing, you wish to be esteemed in society as befits your rank. Yet your present conduct augurs ill for this and seems doomed to end with scandal and disgrace. The state of your nerves grows daily more hectic, for your letters show it. How better to attain your desires and avoid calamity than by the methods I have described to you? If it is apprehension which holds you back from having Julie detained in this manner, let me reassure you. No one in England has ever sunk in moral reputation by using the whip under such circumstances. Our greatest schools have thrived by its employment.

  There is scarcely a man or woman of merit in England who would not wish Julie to be subject to the authority of the lash and the reformatory. By following the course I recommend, you would cast off the uncertainty of youth-in the eyes of society-and establish yourself as a man of consequence. Do, my dearest cousin, take this advice to heart. Only give the word and all shall be done for you so that you may have Julie however and whenever you choose. Your loving friend, Maude Anonymous Augustus and Lady Maude X. Augustus to Lady Maude Wight, 21 June, a.m. My dear Maude, How little you know me, after all, if you believe that I could consent to have the object of my affections dealt with in the manner you describe. It is not in the discipline-room of a reformatory among whips and straps that I wish to adore my bride-to-be. You tell me that Julie is not fit to be the lady of my estates. Surely it is your suggestion which would make her unfit. At present, nothing stands against my desires but her own lack of inclination. Yet how could I bring as my bride a girl who had been thrashed in a reformatory?

  I have been obliged to take certain of the drops which Dr.

  Raspail prescribed in order to maintain my equanimity under these trying circumstances. Your letter brought me no peace of mind. I dare not even imagine the scenes which you delineate respecting the two sisters. I daresay I should find such occasions an object of curiosity. But if you imagine that I could envisage them with Julie as the heroine, you mistake my character more than I had ever thought possible. I can write no more at present. I am so overwrought.

  Your loving cousin, Augustus P.S. I have read, on your instructions, the pages which recount Elaine's ordeal. Is it possible to attend the reformatory as a spectator only? Can one obtain an introduction to the master?

  XI. Lady Maude to Augustus

  Lago di Garda, 25 June

  My dearest Cousin, Only the postscript to your letter lightened somewhat the apprehension which I have long felt on your behalf. Lord Rupert will furnish you with all the necessary introductions you require and will esteem it a pleasure to do so. There are public disciplines attended by the justices which you might witness. Yet when the door is locked upon certain scenes, it is only the chastiser who is present with the girls. I am sure you will understand why! Your failing perhaps is one of moral resolve. Cannot you see what may be done in the name of moral discipline? We have had a charming example here in the past few days and, indeed, it is I who have helped to bring it about. Were you to join us here, you would find that I am now spoken of as the strictest duenna who ever watched over the girls of the Villa Lola.