Mercy upon us! I wished to be alone. Lord Alfred Ridlington, then Mademoiselle and her candle, now Beatrice and after her goodness alone knows what. However, I too felt we could not have a row there and therefore slowly ascended the stairs to my room.
"You think, I suppose," continued Beatrice, "that because you wear all this borrowed plumage you are a girl."
And she set about enumerating it.
"Because you have girl's shoes on, and a lady's stockings right up your legs, and drawers, and a chemise, and corset, and petticoats, you imagine that makes you a girl."
Beatrice's flush had left her by the time we reached the bedroom and she had grown stern and pale while with her flaming eyes she glared upon me.
She so frightened me that I could only ejaculate: "Oh, Beatrice!"
"Oh, Julian!" she retorted, setting down her candle. Then she placed her arms and hands on my shoulders and forced me down on to the sofa.
There was no room for doubting her sex. A girl, a very lovely girl, and now a very angry girl. I trembled.
She looked at me and then without another word slapped my face.
"Don't you know the difference between a boy and a girl yet? Have you not been often enough underneath my petticoats, and my hand often enough under yours? How can you be a girl with this thing?" And so saying she slipped her hand up my legs which fell apart instantly.
I gasped and shuddered under the violence of the assault.
"It is not my doing; how can I help myself?" I enquired coldly.
"Easily; you positively take a delight in belting your sex which is no longer yours to give away. Do you think I have not noticed all your tomfoolery with 'Lord' Alfred? I won't let you sleep with her."
"With her?"
"Yes, her."
"My goodness!" I observed. If he was she, the idea of sleeping with her was not, I must confess, altogether objectionable.
Beatrice saw she had made a blunder and I suppose this prompted the series of severe pinches she then gave me, the effect of which was to cause me to fall helplessly back upon the couch and to scatter all my ideas to the winds. She soon worked me into a condition of extreme excitement.
"There," she said, "how can you imagine yourself a girl now? Do you not long for me?"
"Yes," I replied, and in truth I did.
"Then lie flat down-on your back."
She whisked her skirts across my face and mine up to my middle. I very soon felt my mistress upon me.
"Now prove to me that you are a boy and I will satisfy you as to what I am."
Of course it had to be as she wished and it was so.
"Now get up," removing her exquisite leg from across me, "now get up, and undress and get into bed and imagine yourself a girl again if you dare. And try to be honest tomorrow!"
She took up her candle to go and I offered to kiss her, receiving another sounding and stinging slap upon my cheek in return.
"Very well!" I exclaimed, testily.
"Very well!" retorted Beatrice, at once stopping. "What do you mean? How dare you address me in such a tone?"
I looked at her but said nothing; I felt too indignant.
"Very well; just you wait one minute." Then she returned after a moment's absence with Mademoiselle's riding-whip. "Lie across the bed-on your face."
And notwithstanding my struggles, she forced me down, turned up my petticoats, held me with one arm, and inflicted some half dozen vicious stripes across my legs, over my drawers-a very poor protection, for the whip bit through them, and besides, their construction left an ample portion of my frame bare.
"Now," she said, recovering her breath, "it is very well!"
Before I had done writhing, she had left the room. As soon as I recovered I proceeded slowly to undress. I felt it could not be long now before Lord Alfred would join me and I wished to be in bed when he did come. As the shock and the pain gradually wore off I noticed my charms as they were one by one uncovered, and at last, diving into the heavily laced and frilled girl's nightdress which was placed for me, I jumped into bed. How delicious, how comfortable it was!
Silently, but angrily, resolving upon revenge on Beatrice, I ensconced myself at its further side. Its width and two large pillows pleasantly suggested what was to come. The long nightdress down to my feet, the lace ruffles at my wrists, the richly ornamented and bedizened fichu down my bosom, the cut of the garment fitting closely to my figure, impressed me with a deep sense of my girlishness.
I did not lie very comfortably upon my back because Beatrice's flogging had waled my thighs and had made them sore; but I lost the sense of discomfort in the sweet dreams promised by the night in store for me. The first I should have ever spent alone in bed with a man! The dim light, the warmth and luxury of my entourage, filled me with voluptuous enthusiasm and my mind with erotic notions and figures. I let my legs fall widely asunder. I little by little drew up the garment in front, the touch of my own fingers upon my legs strangely thrilling me.
