INNOCENCE LOST

Chapter I

"Lingerie, madam? That next aisle — right this way."

"Thank you. There's such an awful jam ..."

"Yes — special sales on today — in many choice lines. Those always pack the place."

"They brought me — and now I'm sorry they did. I never saw such mobs. One can't get through — or anywhere near the counters ..."

"If you can wait here at this corner for just a minute or two," observed the floor walker, "I may be able to get either Miss Atkinson or Miss Greene to wait upon you soon."

"Oh, thank you."

"Not worth mentioning ..."

He eyed Mrs. Helen Reed thoughtfully for an instant, tugging at a crisp, short brown moustache. For the first time she looked at him fully, curious to feel herself inspected. She saw dark blue eyes with what seemed a slumberous something in their depths. But those eyes became blankly courteous and vapidly smiling as he met the gray gaze of the fresh faced and piquant customer.

"Mr. Hopkins — Mr. Hopkins."

The summoning call arose near at hand from behind a counter.

"Ah — something to straighten out," he said briskly. "I will return and try to help — if you can manage to cling to the corner here."

He was gone. And Helen Reed, crushed to the counter at the intersection of two aisles, found herself much beleaguered as she awaited his return and his presumably potent influence in attracting to her the attention of one of the harried sales girls.

Almost she wished that she had not come. She thought of escaping this mob even now and giving up as a bad job her efforts to get some of the nice things she needed at such prices as the allowance of a well-to-do but niggardly spouse permitted her to afford.

Dismayed by being rolled about and shuffled against by a throng in which women predominated and which seemed, in the swinish bulk, hardly human in its willingness to battle for places at the counters, Helen even started to move away.

Then, recollecting the pledge of the rather handsome floorwalker to look after her, she subsided and squeezed against the corner of two counters.

Facing the sales forces, she became aware of brushing now and then against the thin brown silk of her skirt. Strange that people couldn't hold aloft their bundles — or whatever it was that every little while swept her thighs or her full and projecting rear cushions.

Goodness — that didn't feel like a bundle — that last pressing touch! She glanced quickly over her shoulder. A man — a heavily set, dark visaged man — was just moving away. There was a smirk in his face as he caught her eyes. He raised a pudgy, bare hand to take a package from among several bundles tucked beneath his left arm — and it came upon the blonde lady, hitherto untutored in the ways of New York mobs, that that right hand had deliberately sought her buttocks as the cowardly, licentious and anonymous male passed.

She tossed her fair head and gave him a contemptuous glance designed to be withering. For an instant he looked a trifle alarmed — perhaps fearing she might be one of the 'fussy ones' who would set up a complaining outcry.

But as soon as he observed that she had no intention of creating a scandal in this crowd, his smirk broadened into a chuckle.

He turned as if to come back towards her. Instantly, in some alarm, Helen faced outwardly so that she could watch his every movement. She saw him vanish with no backward look.

Once more, after gazing futilely about in search of the genial floorwalker, she faced the counters. Suddenly she drew a long, tremulous breath. This time — there could be no doubt about it — a flattened hand had passed appraisingly but swiftly over all her thinly veiled bottom.

She had felt fingertips that even sought the groove — as if seeking to make certain it was there and to act as eyes in ascertaining all the intimate contours.

Her suppressed exclamation was followed swiftly by the obscene clutching of the yielding flesh of one buttock at its base — and so thin was her attire that she could feel the warmth of those libidinous, clutching fingers almost as if directly upon her skin. Flushed and panting, she swung half about in defiance of the pressure all about her. She saw the retreating back of the dark, stocky male who had previously affronted her. He turned his head again for a sight of her pretty and indignant face — and, as she stared haughtily, he smirked once more into her far from fascinated eyes.

She understood, of course, that this vulgar but lewd — or vulgar and lewd — man had actually battled his way towards and behind her once more for the licentious purpose of thus intimately touching her while she was helpless to prevent the insult.

He had disappeared — presumably for good this time since he must know she would be on the alert against him now. And Helen, the picture of lovely, blonde ire, now kept her side towards the sales forces and, for a time, she kept looking about to be ready to appeal to some passing gentleman in case the well clad ruffian should make towards her once again.

He did not come — nor did the floorwalker. She found herself shivering unaccountably as her wrath slowly died away. Her fine young breasts — so clearly outlined by the soft blue silk of her blouse — were heaving a little.

She caught an admiring, delicately amused glance or two from males who passed. Their eyes shifted from the supple grace of her body in general to her bosom; then, with just the trace of an interested smile, to her flushed face.

Looking down a trifle — with circumspection — to see what caused the smiles, she became aware that her nipples had stiffened and were indelicately prominent — deliriously prominent, the men would have been more likely to say. Rushing more deeply, she concealed her lightly covered bosom as best she could by turning again towards the counters.

Still it seemed to her that she could feel the affronting, lecherous touches and grasp of the dusky man upon her posterior flesh. She recalled now a bit of unseemly gossip retailed by a madcap Edna — young daughter of friends of her husband.

This girl had spoken of 'cheap feels' stolen in subway and other crowds by men. 'Feels' against which the feminine target was helpless unless she wished to raise a 'ruckus'.

Inspecting goods — but still quite unable to attract the attention of a busy sales person — she remembered how shocked she had been by the language of Edna and by her incredible topic — how she had hushed her lest some of the men in the room should hear.

Bending a trifle in order to see more clearly some dainty undergarments spread out on the counter, she quivered suddenly. Surely there was a soft brushing once more — this time against her hip and thigh.

Biting her lips as the pressures became more pronounced, she waited to feel her flesh grasped and handled. Certainly it must be the earlier ruffian again returned surreptitiously. She must take him red handed, so to speak.

The instant that he grasped her person so clearly that the excuse of an "accidental contact" could avail him nothing, she would appeal to whatever real man was about — and have the insulter driven in disgrace from the store.

As her buttocks were not touched — though those pressures on a thigh which, she knew, must feel as if nude to the exploring fingers, continued — she looked covertly about. Just to her rear was a soldierly and rosy-faced man with white hair — so eminently respectable and fatherly a man that Helen was inclined inwardly to apologize to him for having suspected an intentional insult in what must surely be involuntary.

Over her shoulder the man demanded attention — proclaiming that he wanted a mauve and a lavender chemise "out of that lot — one for a girl with a thirty-five bust and the other for a kid who just likes to think she's grown up."

He did not seem to mind — if indeed he noticed — the smiles that arose about him. Even the preoccupied saleswomen glanced at him with amused tolerance — although as yet totally unable to give him the instant service he appeared to want.

"Appeared to want" is perhaps the proper phrase — for he lingered now quite contentedly — having made it appear by his outcry that he was in haste to get out of this jam. He seemed constantly edged closer to Helen by the pressure from every side.

He mopped his brow with a kerchief held in one hand. The young wife knew where his other and invisible hand was — but still she could not make up her mind that those soft roamings upon her thigh and hip were intentional instead of brought about by pressures which neither of them could avoid.

"Dogged warm in here!" he breathed.

Helen glanced up — unaware whether the words formed an unconscious soliloquy or whether he was addressing her in the quest of sympathy from a co-sufferer. His eyes were upon her face quite gravely as she turned it slightly upward.

"Yes," she said quietly and courteously. "It is hard to endure."

He smiled redly — looking downward upon her white throat and upper bosom. She turned away again — a little uncomfortably.

Suddenly she drew a sharply inhaled breath. There could no longer be the least doubt that the swart, tubby man who had first assailed her had a successor in the person of this infinitely respectable appearing and elderly man who clung to her rear.

"Clung" is, however, hardly the word. For the fingers which had passed from her thigh and hip backward, slipping along her body, and which now lay upon her plump bottom appeared to harbor no idea of pinching or otherwise maltreating her.

But they crept with infinite softness all about on the great, superb mounds which Helen had unconsciously projected as she gazed at the counter wares just as this man came up.

Clenching her teeth nervously as she felt the fingertips run exploringly — but with a queer, agitating lightness — under each buttock and then along the intermediary channel, the youthful wife half swung to rebuke the man.

She thought she would say quietly that he mustn't — for she disliked heartily the notion of causing a scandal unpleasant to both herself and this aging, obviously well stationed man who could look so fatherly and, at the same time, be so surreptitiously libidinous towards a strange girl.

Possibly the man was a gentle maniac — unable to restrain himself when he saw the opportunity to give indelicate touches to womanly flesh.

With parted lips and glazed eyes he gave her a glance almost pathetic in its strained eagerness and imploring pleasure.

"Yes — deuced hot!" he stammered murmuringly.

"Very," she acquiesced faintly, hastily turning away her eyes.

Swinging again towards the counters, she looked quickly about. No one seemed to be noticing her predicament — nor the fact that white teeth held her soft lip and that her face glowed with shame — shame — shame and — something else.

For Helen was conscious now of being magnetically thrilled and shaken by being so odiously and lustfully caressed in the very midst of a throng. Her little attempt at chaste rebellion and indignant repulse had died away in a queer fury of submission to the shameful thing which was occurring.

The man's hot breath was very close to her ear. Perhaps he heard her teeth grate softly as, turned entirely away from him now, she voluptuously expanded and obtruded the splendid field of his investigations by bending once more towards the wares she was supposedly inspecting.

His delight clearly knew no limits save those imposed by all these proximities of other and unobservant units of this multitude. Almost crushed to the pretty girl, he fondled pressingly — with little nips occasionally — all the surfaces of the soft and firm and splendid mappemonde which, he understood, was now given feverishly even if ashamedly to his touches.

Sighing with rapture, he fingered it all again and yet again — acquainting himself without restraint with all its outlines and its wonderful amplitude and resiliency. It felt as if practically bare to his fingers. He could feel the silk — and perhaps a trifle of sheer lawn or silk beneath — glide on the warm and polished skin.

The lightly bending lady shivered once more — and he was conscious of the rippling movements of her flesh — as he brazenly let his hand slip downwards. He felt the parted base of the buttocks — and still his fingertips pressed downward and inward.

Unavailingly she appeared to try, squeezing her thighs together and with writhing hips, to dislodge that impertinent hand. He heard her sigh. He bent as she was bending — and he whispered huskily:

"You are sweet beyond words!"

"Yes," she stammered mechanically. "It is indeed very warm in here."

But she whirled suddenly — with a startled look that bespoke a confusion which awakened her from a species of lethargy and into a consciousness of what she was permitting — as the elderly male ostentatiously allowed her to learn that he was still virile and potent.

Against her soft hip he was pressing a distended member — while still two fingertips sought to plunge yet more deeply between her thighs from the rear.

Before the expression in the face of the lovely but unknown lady the soldierly man retreated slowly.

His guilty hand fell — and, forgetting the errand which had brought him to this place, he slunk away through the throng.

Chapter II

Flushed and silent — bitterly ashamed now of the unaccountable impulse towards indecent permissions to which she had given way — Helen Reed turned again towards the rich and intimate garments which were at once so near and so unobtainable.

She had had no idea that she was under inspection in the furtive licentiousness with which she had yielded to a more brazen and masculine, even if equally furtive, lechery. But the crisp moustached and blue-eyed floorwalker had long since drawn near again — in time, in fact, to observe the twitching squeezing of the superb and extended posterior of the fair girl by the dusky, tubby man on his second trip past her.

The brown haired young man had had a sudden gleam of the eyes. Near at hand — but concealed by the throng unless the young lady turned completely about — he had observed the bitten lip and the sudden rush of color and the entire tremulous reaction of the blonde customer to the audacity of her first assailant.

Accustomed to the fact that such liberties were frequently taken in crowds by licentious males, what chiefly interested the floorwalker — aside from the beauty of the girl — was the still unconscious excitement which she knew not she was betraying.

He had seen her shiver with what, his practiced eye told him, was more than just shame and disgust and ire. It was clear that she was something of an innocent in. this wolf pack — yet that she had been unable to prevent herself from reacting sensually the floorwalker noted with a little smile upon his lips.

To him it was a commonplace that wherever women and girls gathered there would be gentle or dangerous voluptuaries to take unpermitted liberties of this nature. He had seen such liberties met with shrewish rage and outcries — immediately followed by the disappearance of the male individual who had aroused those protests.

He had seen them ignored but obviously welcomed. He had seen them frankly welcomed by girls or women who would even smile wantonly and encouragingly at the guilty man. But he had never seen, just this sensitive, subtly receptive but genuinely distressed attitude on the part of the victim before — and it seemed to interest him enormously.

He was just about to wriggle his way to the exquisite blonde — whose great gray eyes and golden hair and delicate charm had impressed him at first sight — when he saw the soldierly senior work his way to post himself behind her.

With another odd smile, the floorwalker contrived to look between two intervening customers and to see very nearly all that occurred between the timidly audacious veteran and the at first restless and subsequently ashamedly complaisant lady.

The observer saw the sudden rebellion which drove the white haired, rosy man away in fear of an outburst from the lady's bitten lips. The floorwalker did not know just what was the audacity which had brought the girl to her senses — or nearly to her senses.

He did not know that the elderly man had become possessed of an erection and — perhaps proudly as well as obscenely — had made her aware of the fact. He did know, though — for he had seen — that she had leaned for a time in quivering agitation while at least one finger of her assailant worked deliciously between her legs from behind.

The refinement of the lady was obvious — and so there could be but one valid explanation of her having permitted this luscious and brazen attack — and that explanation was a temperament of lurking fire — a temperament perhaps never kept assuaged and at peace by normal gratifications — a temperament which had almost inevitably been aroused by these lascivious touches so far that the girl was practically helpless to insist upon the respect due to her.

Helen Reed, looking at the rich and intimate garments outspread before her — but not seeing them clearly as she fought for composure — was conscious of still seeming to feel the final, lewd, hand-filling clutch of her first assailant upon one buttock.

But more distinctly even than this shameful and unspeakable insult she was aware of sensing the bolder fingertips which had affronted her in another way and another region. A localized throbbing and palpitation of her secret flesh persisted.

And the blonde lady, shamed and distressed by the knowledge that she had actually favored the harmless appearing and elderly man in his perverse touches, found it a full minute before she could resume sufficient self-control to wave faintly at a harassed salesgirl in the attempt to get the latter's attention.

"Sorry, lady," the girl found time to say as she whisked past with her sales book and a package.

"These others are all ahead of you."

There was a friendly little touch on Helen's shoulder from behind. Turning in surprise — even in this day of surprises — she heard:

"Now madam, if you please — it is a little thinned out at the other end of this counter. I think I can manage to get preferred attention for you if you will struggle through the jam with me."

She was looking into the calm face of the good looking floor walker.

"Oh — thank you — I had forgotten your kind promise," she said gratefully.

It was nice, she thought, to see at last a male face in this place which was coolly courteous instead of inflamed and libidinous. She had had no idea that shopping for advertised bargains could be so formidable a thing.

Aside from the blue eyed floorwalker there were only persons of her own sex about her now — but these seemed more terrible in their animal surge for the coveted articles than men would have been.

She found herself being conducted through a throng which seemed packed almost solidly. She and the floorwalker were gaining ground through the mob — but she hardly knew how. Peculiarly she found that she had surrendered a bare hand to his extended one — that he was leading her though walking almost at her side.

Suddenly they were jammed in more tightly than ever — so tightly that they were crushed together and could not move for the moment. Queerly it seemed to her that her guide had overlooked a more promising path outside the crowd.

"Couldn't we have gotten through by going over there?" she asked.

And suddenly, smitten silent and flushing deeply, she was trembling, crushed against the man.

"We might," he admitted. "My mistake — I fancied this was the better path."

His words, breathed into her very ear so closely were they joined, did not even touch her understanding. For the maneuvers of the handsome floorwalker, under cover of the total concealment of this compact throng, were of a nature to belie entirely the composure of his face — a composure in its turn belied by that strange something in his eyes.

Still holding her right hand in his left one, his other hand was stirring her into, first, a deep discomposure — then a growing embarrassment — then into tense shame — and finally into a fearful, unwilling, sexual agitation which made her vibrate and murmur and try vainly to tug her hand from his grasp.

"Sorry — sorry," he kept saying to the now convulsed girl who seemed more unutterably lovely than ever as her shamed eyes implored him now and as her parted lips quivered and her delicate nostrils vibrated and her cheeks turned a slow scarlet.

"Sorry — unavoidable — sorry — trying to force our way out," she heard him murmur. "You must forgive me for getting you in here — I meant well ..."

But all the time his concealed right hand wandered and touched her odiously. It had arisen between them to touch her breasts. It had descended to take cognizance of her soft thighs in front of a smooth, round hip.

Creeping upward, it came with confusing caresses upon her yielding belly — and so prolonged and so pressing were the touches which the man veiled beneath excuses and beneath a composure which only his eyes denied, that the warmth of his palm and fingers penetrated her thin attire and she felt it vividly upon her sensitive skin.

Helen shuddered suddenly. Her head drooped — and perhaps only the jam in which they stood prevented her from falling.

"No — no — oh — oh — no!" she whispered quaveringly — though almost unconscious of having tried to speak at all. He seemed not to hear.

"We'll be out in an instant," he murmured. "Have but just the least patience ..."

She heard his final word. "Patience ..." great heavens — "patience" — when, with deliberation now, he was fondling all her genital region with those fingers which appeared to burn her through the tenuous garb she wore!

Helen felt him apprise himself, as his hand slipped downward over her belly, of the rising mound of her sex — of its growth of soft hair. The former he even had the audacity to squeeze with grouped fingers and he plucked at the latter sufficiently so that she felt it lightly pulled.

The aforesaid frank and ingenuous and hardly more than adolescent Edna had spoken whisperingly and briefly — before being checked indignantly by Helen, her hostess — of the "fun" it was to be lingeringly "felt up" under circumstances which made it impossible for a girl to resist effectively and under conditions such that she could seem to ignore what was going on. "Fun," the girl had called it — "fun" — what a weak and meaningless word!

Never before had the chaste young wife of the aging Daniel Reed known what it was to be "felt up." She knew now, however — even if fully — or, at least, outwardly — clad with decorum. She burned with shame and glowed with a dull, aching rapture as this strange but seductive young male forced the tips of his fingers downward and between her clenched legs.

As her thighs remained clenched against this lustful invasion he looked swiftly into her bowed and scarlet face. He saw the bitten lip, the lovely, convulsed features, the half closed eyes — and he heard the husky breathing from between lightly parted lips.

He saw the fine breasts — so clearly outlined by the brown silk of the gown — heave and protrude their tiny points.

The floorwalker's earlier observations of the effect upon this charming lady of the brutal approaches of the dark-skinned ruffian and of the gentler old man had emboldened him immensely to take advantage of the temperament which she had revealed amid her obvious burning shame and distress.

He nourished, amid a torrid and growing fancy for this blonde beauty, the conviction that here was a delicate and refined young woman who was so deliciously passionate that it was as much her sensual if shamed reaction to his stolen liberties as their imprisonment in a throng that put her momentarily at his mercy.

He raised his right hand to the bosom which so tempted him. The girl sighed and swayed against him as, looking about to make certain no one was observing them, he felt of her exquisite breasts. He smoothed the mounds, squeezed them gently, touched the arisen nipples with a forefinger.

"Oh — oh — oh — don't!" he heard her gasp faintly. "You are — oh — so insulting — under your kindness!"

Still he seemed not to hear. Swiftly he lowered their two yoked hands — his left one and her right — to his nether person.

For an instant Helen did not comprehend what it was upon which this brazen individual had laid her hand pressingly. Then, gasping, she made a wholly futile attempt to snatch away her hand from that swollen object which seemed to burn her fingers through his breeches.

But her "benefactor" slowly promenaded her imprisoned fingers upon his turgid and lightly covered sex — and his right hand darted downward again between them.

This time he caught the warm thighs unawares and somewhat expanded. Instantly he multiplied into an almost terrible frenzy the sensations known by the woman when the elderly wooer had forced a finger between her legs from behind. With lecherous fondling he took cognizance of the wee furrow of her sex.

To the beldames and younger girls and women about them — all utterly absorbed in the counters before them — nothing unwonted was occurring. They hemmed in the willing and unwilling lechery of this crowd-concealed assault and modesty and on immaculate wifehood without even knowing it was going on in their midst. Distracted — thrilled to the core — bitterly ashamed — panting and trembling — Helen mustered force to speak.

"I beg of you," she whispered — resorting to a pleading confession. "Please, oh, please. I am — I shall have to — make a scene if you don't stop!"

She raised a lovely, convulsed face. He smiled — with what, to a casual observer, would have passed for simple courtesy in the midst of a conversation.

"Come," he said. "I think we can make it now."

And she found herself miraculously seated at a counter upon a stool just beside the entrance between two counters. And a Miss Jones was being preempted to "attend to this lady who has been waiting here for an hour" — this last as a sop to those about through whom Helen had been shoved and who were casting indignant, complaining glances at her and at the floorwalker.

Helen had need of being seated. Her legs seemed like cotton beneath her as she was forced forward to sit upon this stool which, at a signal from her companion over the shoulders of the intervening women, a cash girl had hastened to dust and thus to prevent a husky woman from slipping upon it ahead of Helen.

Recovering gradually a certain composure, the blonde lady began to make her choices among the intimate and choice garments before her. She had expected the unspeakably audacious floorwalker to vanish now — and, still wrought with shame over the extent to which she had shared his lechery, she had been prepared not even to turn her head or speak to him as he went.

But he remained. Indeed, he seemed to wish to help her in her shopping and in her choices of the garments which would nestle directly upon the fair young body of whose fibre and outlines he had taken such brazen cognizance.

He went so far as very politely to suggest that "this pale blue combination would look divine on you — " and that "this creamy little chemise — or that step-in of the same material — would be immensely becoming ..."

"Get down those satin garter belts, Miss Jones," he directed at last.

And, bending above Helen with one of those articles in his hand, he murmured:

"Perhaps you wear these now — many young wives do."

For he had seen the ring upon her slender finger that betrayed her wedded state.

"But if you do not, you will find the long side garters much more comfortable and pleasing. Your fortunate husband will enjoy these. They are put on, you know, when you are quite naked — -fresh and glowing from your bath — buckled about your bare, slender waist.

"Then the stockings — no chemise as yet until you have attached the supporters to your hose. Then — standing — with only the stockings and belt upon your white body — you draw on your chemise or combination. Fancy — what a scene — for your husband of course!"

Flushed to the hair, she comprehended now the lewd impulses which had led him to aid the smiling salesgirl in this "flattering" attendance upon her.

It seemed too late — since already, with bowed head, she had silently accepted so much of his "helpful" attention and had heard so many of his more decently phrased suggestions — for her to protest at this stage.

She saw her own salesgirl smile covertly at another who swiftly passed with a curious glance at herself and the bending, attentive man. Reading lips, she thought she caught the words: "Must be Hopkins' sweetie ..."

Back of Helen the crowd still swirled. Standing in the narrow entrance which led between two counters, the man took from the extended hand of Miss Jones a charming undergarment of mauve silk and lace.

"Panties and shirt together — " he commented, shaking the garment out before her. "A lovely style — and sold at just about what it cost us today. Slits here and here, you see — something like the old fashioned drawers ..."

He stumbled a little.

"Oh — excuse me," he said, as the garment fell from his hand.

He bent swiftly to retrieve it — anticipating the hand of the seated girl. Fumbling for the underwear with one hand, he darted the other hand to the shapely, stockinged legs which were hidden from the sales persons by the counter.

Already Helen had swung somewhat towards where he stooped — having been on the eve of picking up the fallen garment herself at first. At his mercy were her silk clad legs as, stunned by this added audacity so poorly shielded from the crowd, she felt a hand run swiftly up a calf, beyond a knee.

Momentarily, as he retrieved the clumsily dropped underwear, she felt fingers upon her naked thigh — and then, with a dart, the man's hand was upon her bare sex.

The drooping strap of her thin combination offered no protection at all as his fingers found it. Instantaneously — quicker by far than it takes to tell what happened — the panic-stricken woman felt beard gently tugged and then groping fingertips upon her secret cleft.

Before she could utter a sound or make the least move, to protect herself this incredible thing happened. And then, as rapidly, the man was erect once more and with the garment in his hands.

Suavely — with only his eyes betraying the licentious exultation he felt — he showed her the underwear once more. But already she was rapidly selecting three garments — handing the money to the girl — and, with face scarlet, swinging directly away from the floorwalker as she awaited her change and her bundle.

He saw, of course, that his chances of familiarity of any nature whatever with the shakened girl were at an end. He bowed and departed.

"Mr. Hopkins is very nice," observed her salesgirl — a plump, pleasant faced damsel — with a demure effort at conversation as she handed parcel and change to the customer. "Maybe you are Mrs. Hopkins ...".

"No, I — I don't chance even to know the — gentleman," observed Helen shakily.

"He's very agreeable. That's the first time I've ever seen him wait on any customer personally," volunteered Miss Jones with curiosity.

The blonde lady nodded and went away. The flush persisted in her face long after she was seated in a subway car. For she carried away from that shop more than just exquisite underwear cheaply bought — she carried away also memories which stirred her more enormously than any others of her life to date.

Chapter III

Not that it matters much as far as our present narrative of incidents in a life which was to be far from hackneyed is concerned, but simply to serve as a background explaining the fair Helen and her extraordinary reactions to occurrences such as had never before entered her life, it may be mentioned that she had been molded by nature and circumstances into a sort of guileless if lovely innocent.

The daughter of a country squire of a type still occasionally to be found in New England, her parents had possessed both modest means and much ampler piety. She had been carefully reared in every respect — guarded, too, against thinking of her undoubted physical loveliness and, as far as possible, shielded even from the reference of others to her blonde, delicately tinted beauty.

That even as a child in her teens she possessed temperament would have been observable to warier and more worldly persons than her parents through many a tiny and seemingly negligible episode. But even her curiosities — when they approached the "infamy" of fleshly things — were hushed into silence by her affectionate but staid mother.

A clever student, she was sent to Wellesley instead of Smith — the choice being made for her almost solely because a New England pastor had spoken deprecatingly to her parents of the close proximity to the latter institution of the youthful males of Amherst College.

At Wellesley she was a universal favorite — and, of course, speedily learned that her beauty was such as to be esteemed outstanding and radiant even among the charmers of that venerable and excellent school for the advanced education of girls.

She could not fail to become while there sophisticated to a certain extent — but still, in some way which may be accounted little short of miraculous by those who know of the undercurrents of feminine college life, Helen Roscoe — as she then was — escaped such contacts as would have served to enlighten, perhaps contaminate, her in any carnal manner.

She was graduated — still the quiet, unassuming, if more matured and lovelier, girl who had entered college. Of course she "knew things" now — but only theoretically in the field of fleshly matters.

The ideal of her parents would have been to keep her always thus. Shortsightedly they frowned upon such wooers or gallants as had opportunity to form the slightest social contacts with Helen. And, being a dutiful daughter — and, besides,' not having been in the least attracted as yet towards any specific man — she had no protests to offer against the nolle se tangere attitude of her folk where she was concerned.

With regret they understood that they could not condemn this loveliness to celibacy or to an immured state which would "shield her from the world." But by marrying her presently to the eminently respectable Daniel Reed — then in his late forties — they believed to have consigned her to such marital keeping as would most nearly resemble the careful, parental tutelage and would maintain her in the atmosphere of a "respectable" home from which worldliness would be barred.

Her parents had had no idea of being cruel to the girl who was their pride. Indeed, they had no idea — and perhaps the still unawakened Helen had only the vaguest and most occasional thought — that perhaps she would be happier if wedded to a man more nearly her own age.

The man Reed — returning for some weeks each year to his former home in the New England town from New York where he had rapidly amassed a fortune — had a certain glamour for everybody in Woonsocket.

He was a graying, thin featured man who could be very pleasant, affable and attractive when he wished — and, in face of the golden charm of this twenty-two-year-old daughter of boyhood friends of his, he chose to be at his best.

It is doubtless true that Woonsocket whisperings to the effect that the man was wealthy played their unacknowledged part in the favorable attitude of her parents towards his impulsive and speedy wooing of Helen in the summer succeeding her graduation from Wellesley.

And presently the man — though "cagey" with regard to his cherished wealth with others — perhaps because he feared touches for charitable or other purposes — played what he thought might be his ace with Helen by letting her know of his first million almost achieved and of the nice little house, buried in trees and greenery, which he had bought — "at a bargain" — in Westchester.

These things certainly did him no harm with the girl — who had thought of her father's twenty or thirty thousands as wealth heretofore. She was not venal — but she did now have dreams of luxury and trips and gems and fine clothes to set off the charms towards which — in speech — Daniel Reed was not niggardly.

She married him and went away with him — and thereafter she tightened her lips upon such complaints as she may have had to offer concerning what married life really turned out to be.

She had learned by patience how to extort — he thought of it as extortion — from her spouse such sums as were actually needed to prevent their establishment and themselves from falling into disesteem among neighbors and associates.

She retained — and nourished — sufficient hold upon the man to be alone in her ability to loosen his purse strings when it was imperative that they should be slackened. She had good things to wear — and she was able to make him wear good things.

She had some jewels — perhaps a tenth as many as he could have well afforded to give her. They had a small car — but the price of gas always dismayed the man. The little home in Westchester — bought at a bargain which he liked to discuss — was well furnished and equipped — thanks to her rather unwelcomed insistence.

Thus there were certain things which she simply would have — and she got them. She would have never been inclined towards actual extravagance in any event — but, by simply balking as long as he could when expenditures were suggested, he was able to weary her out of thoughts of trips to Europe or such expensive motor car as his means would have been ample to provide.

She knew that now he was worth well over a million — that some day doubtless this and more could be her own. But that meant very little to her in face of a life which she found drab.

Without going into such details of their early wedded life as would bar this biography perhaps from the family libraries of the captious, it may be said nevertheless — as indicating the nature of that life together — that never had the golden haired Helen known such thrills as she had found in one brief hour in a crowded store — and at the hands of three strange men.

She had had, certainly, experiences with her husband — but none of them had left behind any recollection ,able to make her vibrate in the least. Handicapped possibly by his age and general lack of physical attractiveness — and, too, by the revelations which he unavoidably gave her of a parsimonious and in other respects unfragrant character — the quite unconsciously unfortunate man had no notion of the sealed treasure house of emotion beside him and which he was unable to open.

He took an infinite pride in being able to put on display a lovely wife of less than half his years — and he was prone to congratulate himself silently that she cost him so comparatively little.

But of such licentious tenderness as might have made even such a male as he was able to cause this young beauty to palpitate and long for unutterable things he had no notion whatever.

But there was now a real male on the track of this gray eyed and golden haired Helen — a male with a physique so admirable as to make it a match for hers in admirable qualities — yet a male so devoid of scruples in almost all respects as to make it necessary to rate him as deprived of any moral standards — an adventurer of a type so sinister that the fair prey which he had marked out would certainly have shuddered with horror and terror had she realized that she had even come into physical contact with such a man.

Still shaken to the depths as she left the department store, Helen had had no notion that the crisp moustached and handsome — but oh, so viciously brazen — a floorwalker lurked near the main entrance when she departed.

He gave one more glance at the trim, expensive, tailor made gown she wore. His blue eyes ratified his earlier judgment concerning the diamond she wore above a marriage ring.

And hardly had she turned hesitantly towards a subway entrance than the man had signalled to a slight, pale youth near at hand — who quickly slipped to his side.

"That's one — run it down," said the floorwalker from the corner of his mouth as he looked benevolently at the sky as if approving it. "If you lose it I'll murder you! I've more reasons than one in this case."

"Th' brown silk one?" murmured the youth, yawning and not even looking at his admonitor.

"That's the one. Hurry — and I want the fullest possible report — where she lives — everything about her."

He turned back into the shop and to his duties — duties which, it must be admitted, he usually performed admirably — though his motives in assuming them originally were of a nature so far from admirable that a descent of the police would have been in order had they been known.

This was the black sheep of a very good midwestern family — this Paul Hopkins, as he now called himself. He had had slightly over a year at Purdue — before being dumped out of college hastily because of a scandal which — because it involved the youthful daughter of a faculty member — had been hushed up as far as possible.

Splendidly equipped in person and in mind, he had that curious, crooked twist of nature which makes some individuals utterly reckless of the means by which they acquire whatever they want.

It is probable that in the less than three weeks of his employment in his present brief capacity he had done more real work than in any precious full year of his matured life — yet, since disappearing from the ken of family and of all who had known him, he had lived in general a life of luxurious ease.

Whenever he did accept a job — as in this instance — it was always for a very short time and with motives never of advantage to the person or persons who congratulated themselves gleefully upon hiring so very capable and so very presentable a young man.

He had in an inner pocket at the present moment a scrawled epistle signed "Tank" — and that letter, could the manager of this store have obtained and deciphered its writing and its slang, would have made him rend his thin hair.

The scrawl referred to a back door "where Cripes watches from eleven on" — to a load of silk — to "the shiners that Bettie nailed from the second floor and gave to Joe before she made her getaway for Phillie."

There were other references, too, which made it clear that this estimable Paul Hopkins had known how to plant persons not unknown to him in certain spots about this great market which dealt in only expensive lines of goods.

It was the ill fate of Daniel Reed to discover — a few days after his wife's unrevealed misadventure downtown — that he could no longer get along, in his manifold and increasing business interests, without a secretary.

Not having at hand in his office any adequate person for the position who could be prompted to it, he advertised in a single morning newspaper.

Response was prompt. For he had not yet left his Westchester home for his place of business on the morn of the appearance of his ad when an applicant showed up at his very door — a rather startling episode considering the fact that the only address mentioned in his advertisement had been his downtown one.

Delayed that day by the necessity of going through some old deeds and packets of bonds which he kept in a safe at his home, the financier was still engaged in this after breakfast pursuit in his "study" — as he called his den — when his fair lady entered — personally and rather flushedly announcing "a young man outside, Dan, who wants to see you about that secretarial job."

"Must be a hustler," commented the surprised Reed. "It's not ten yet — and I didn't give any home address. I want- a girl or woman — I think I can get one cheaper — about thirty-five a week at the outside. Better send him away."

Helen hesitated — and then she said in a low voice:

"He may be very good — a college man, he says, and with experience. I gathered that he doesn't so much care what he gets ..."

"Must be a fool!" said the staring Daniel.

"He says he has some means — though hardly enough to get along on without any work at all — wants to occupy his time for some hours daily — is very interested in business — regards you as a successful man with whom he would feel proud to be associated however humbly ..."

"Good Lord, you must have talked with him for at least an hour!"

"No," she denied, flushing as she shook her head. "I — just for a minute — as we came in — but — that was what we talked about — he was so in earnest ..."

"How'd you come to bring him in? Where's that lazy maid you hired?"

"Busy upstairs — and she's not lazy in the least. I was out on the hill in the backyard — playing with the neighbor's children ..,"

Unaccountably she flushed pinker. But the man before her did not notice her expression.

"Ha — playing — tomboy!" he said. "Grass and things all over that short gingham gown — what you been doing — climbing trees?"

With an effort at a smile she denied this.

"If you've got to wear silk stockings when you're just out romping with kids," he said a trifle querulously, "why not have 'em at least reach as far up as the edge of your skirt? Longer ones wouldn't cost any more, it seems likely!"

"You old fusser — it's just that one is coming down," she explained, tightening up the wrinkled stocking. "Some folks," she added, with a placidity that may have been assumed, "would not mind that little bit of skin showing."

"Oh, I don't mind it," he hastened to declare, "I wouldn't mind if you went bare legged — when you're right at home here where folks aren't likely to see you. It would save stockings," he added almost coaxingly. "And, with legs as pretty as yours are ..."

"Flatterer!" she smiled, a little wryly. "What about this man? He is waiting in the library ..."

"Send him in — and, if he seems to know what he's about, I won't pay a cent more than thirty — since he's silly enough not to care."

The fact that this chaste and delightful Helen was able shyly to usher in — as she presently did — to her husband's presence the man who had so deliberately and grossly insulted her a few days earlier would appear to require some explanation.

It may truthfully be said that until a few minutes earlier she would have not conceived it possible that she could appear to sponsor for employment by her spouse a man from whom she had dreamed of herself as fleeing in horror if she should ever come face to face with him once again.

She had not dreamed with horror — though she had with shame — of what this comely, brazen person had done to her when she was at his mercy. Those caresses still shook her to the very core when they recurred — as they frequently did — to her mind. But she had thought of him as doubtless the most dangerous man abroad — a prowler with the ineffable nerve to force upon an unprotected woman sensations and emotions such as she had never known.

It had come about queerly that this man — Perry Allen, as he had now introduced himself, though she had thought to hear him called Hopkins at the store — was responsible for the embarrassing plight in which he had this morning discovered the lady from whose visions he had not been long absent now for some days.

For certainly, before he had both thrilled and shamed her so unutterably, she would have been incapable of the morbidly indecent actions of this very morning — actions which new impulses within her had seemed to prompt.

To the rear of the house there was a sloping greensward among trees and bushes. This same declivity extended also behind the adjoining house — home of the Boerums and their children — the latter, boys of seventeen and thirteen and a girl of eleven.

Strolling here after breakfast as her husband penned himself in his den, Helen saw, above a hedge, the two younger Boerum youngsters amusing themselves by rolling down the hill on the grass. She watched and laughed — noting, though, that the small girl quite innocently made displays rendered the more flagrant by the scant combination which she wore in emulation of her elders — and that the boy, Dolph as he was called, was not utterly indifferent to these displays even though he tried to mask his attention.

Already on the best of terms with these children, she was accepted by them as something like a big child herself — for, at twenty-three, she was the youngest creature about either of these adjoining homes save the children themselves.

"You can laugh," carolled Sue Boerum, "but I'll bet you couldn't do this — roll clear to the bottom the way I can."

Helen was about to agree that she probably couldn't. And then she glimpsed the sudden flash in the eyes of Dolph. As his sister had once more sprawlingly picked herself up his eyes had been boring beneath the short and flying skirts. But now he transferred eagerly a somewhat flushed gaze to the grown but girlish creature on the other side of the low hedge.

The blonde lady bit her soft lip as she saw the youth stiffen into silent and hopeful attention. In a flash she understood that though this might be just play to little Sue, it was more than play to this husky adolescent male — that, if he was eager to see a grown woman like herself roll down that decline, it was not because of the sheer sport of the game.

Suddenly, as she saw the bright, intent eyes of the boy reflectively upon her shapeliness, Helen was stirred by an odd recklessness and by an emotion vaguely akin to that she had felt when, with a childish indecency hitherto foreign to her, she had deliberately made her backside more prominent to the trembling fingers of the elderly man in the store.

"I'll bet I can, Sue," she called. "I'll bet I can roll the whole distance perfectly straight — instead of bringing up all in a ball to one side as you do."

She sat down upon the grass — small, well shod feet and round, superb legs pointing at the hedge some ten feet away — over which the two children leaned laughingly now.

"Oh!" cried Mrs. Reed softly. "Oh!"

She made as if to arise hastily — but sank back again to the sitting posture.

"What's the matter?" asked Sue curiously. "Afraid to try it?"

"No — I'm not. Just you watch ..."

The fact was that she had suddenly remembered after preparing for the childish feat that quite all she wore under that becoming, simple gingham gown was a very short shirt of white silk — a garment so entirely ineffective for purposes of concealment in the inevitable gyrations she was about to undertake that she weakened in the lightly libidinous project for a moment.

Chapter IV

Straightening out to full length as she reclined, Helen started on that puerile roll down the slope. For a moment she had to twist to get started — and then the steep pitch of the ground caught her and attended to the continuation of her journey.

Her arms were folded — but her shapely legs kicked involuntarily in every direction as she was flung onward by the steepness. Along the hedge she saw Dolph and Sue following and watching her intently — the latter laughing merrily but the former wide eyed and flushed.

"Oh, oh, oh — what you're showing!" called the small girl now — and, glancing at her brother, she pointed a chubby finger.

"Keep quiet!" snapped the boy to his sister.

"I can't help it," quavered Helen, still tumbling. "I shouldn't have done this — and you shouldn't look."

"You are impolite, Sue," said the boy. "She is only fooling, Mrs. Reed ..."

"I'm not!" cried the lass promptly. "I can see all her bare legs — and — and hair!"

"You fibber — she's fibbing, Mrs. Reed!"

"I'm not — you just say that because you want to see," said the girl acutely. "I'll leave it to Frank — there — oh — your bottom is all bare too, Mrs. Reed!"

And now, reaching level ground and ceasing to roll onward but lying in a disordered mess of white naked thighs and crumpled attire, Helen, flushed to the ears, became aware that the oldest of the Boerum crew, the seventeen-year-old Frank, was also among those present.

Apparently he had been sitting against the hedge at the base of the declivity all this time — whether to watch his young sister in her tumbling gymnastics or not there was no way of telling.

But she saw his reddened face now very clearly. He was looking through a thin portion of the hedge and directly at her.

"I could shake you, Sue!" Helen heard him growl — in anger at the attention called to his presence. "Can't you be the least bit decent? Are you hurt, Mrs. Reed?"

And, with this excuse of solicitude over the state of the fair lady who still lay, dizzy and flushed, upon the greensward, the tall boy arose and strode over the low hedge as if to come to her assistance.

Helen was upon her back — not even aware now that her knees were raised and her attitude one of the utmost indecency — but well aware that she had shown all her intimate nakedness to two stalwart boys, one of whom at least was certainly virile — and was silently, unconsciously making that fact manifest as he bent above her.

She saw Frank stoop and peer just before reaching her. And then she realized the wide parting of her raised knees and the skirt high upon her nude thighs. She straightened out with a little gasp — and she saw Sue nudge her brother Dolph and grin as the younger pair stared over the hedge.

Helen was much shaken — and she could not tell just how much of her flaccid, strained state was due to the unexpectedly rapid and formidable tumble which she had taken and how much to the thrills which overran her in the wake of the vast impropriety she had committed.

"I — I had no idea you were there, Frank," she said weakly and confusedly. "I was just playing — with the two children."

Chapter V

To the unutterable embarrassment attending now Helen's realization of how great had been the indiscretion to which she had been so remarkably tempted, there was added now a sudden fear that this younger generation might confide in an older one what they had seen her do. Sitting up unsteadily and smoothing out her skirt to her knees, she said imploringly:

"Oh — I didn't realize how — how awful that was going to be! If your parents should ever learn of it they would think me a terrible hoyden ..."

"It was just fun — we wouldn't be silly enough to peach," said the girl promptly.

Her two brothers gave her an approving glance.

"Can you get up?" asked Frank — as the young woman sank back weakly after an attempt to rise.

"I'm just a trifle dizzy yet," she said — and, indeed, her head was whirling.

"Perhaps I can lift you."

And he made the effort — but it was an interrupted effort which fell short of its purpose. For there was a sudden irruption from the far side of the Reeds' yard. Over another hedge separating the yard from a street there strode a tall man.

In his bearing was efficiency and purpose. He appeared to have no least doubt of his being welcomed upon this errand of mercy.

Authoritatively he caught Helen beneath the arms and lifted her to her feet as readily as if her one hundred and twenty pounds had been a feather's weight. And the startled, incredulous girl found herself gazing upon an attractive and quite unabashed face which was decorated with a crisp brown moustache — and looking into a pair of dark blue eyes.

"You!" he cried — and so well enacted were his start and his exclamation of surprise that it seemed certain he was just that instant recognizing the identity of his lovely burden.

"You!" gasped the girl chokingly. "You — oh, you — how dare you!"

He waved away the three young Boerums with a smile which showed even, white teeth and which served to reassure them that this was a pleasant meeting of friends — perhaps of relatives. They departed without even a backward glance.

As Mrs. Reed writhed now in the hands which still held her by the waist, the man released her instantly. Stepping back, he bowed profoundly.

"If you could only know," he said in a low voice, "how deeply I have regretted my mad and incredible discourtesy of the other day! I am not what I must have seemed to you, I have suffered — since regaining my reason I have suffered over the way I insulted you.

"I have burned to see you — to apologize abjectly — to try to make you comprehend that I was not myself — and then to go away."

"Oh — how could you!" she said faintly.

She stumbled against a tree and leaned there. Strangely, she could not even summon presence of mind to send the man away.

There was in his colorful and handsome face no trace of the knowledge he possessed of the sensual frenzy into which he had once sent this blonde girl whom he knew now to be wifely and inexperienced fidelity — yet whom he knew also to possess, doubtless ignorantly, a deep, underlying strain of undeveloped passion.

"How could I?" he repeated. "I've asked myself that — and found the answer. You may not enjoy the answer — but — since you ask — it is this. You drove me crazy! Your beauty and your innocent unawareness of what men could possibly be seeking in a crowd of ladies — everything about you stirred terribly the animal that lies in me as in every other passionate man.

"I saw a man attack you — I meant to lead you away — to succor you — since I saw you unable to protect yourself. For you were too moved — weren't you — to take any action?"

He looked at her keenly and directly as he put this brazen query. Flushing slowly to the hair, she looked all about her unseeingly — but not at him.

"I — I was — I don't know how it happened ..." she faltered. And then, flaring a little as she realized the nature of his unwarranted catechism, she added:

"You have no right to — ask me such things!"

Unseen, he smiled with satisfaction over the stumbling, unintended confession.

"It is not anything to be ashamed of," he said gently. "When a fair and dainty girl ceases to be moved by the warranted or unwarranted touches of men then the world will be in a sad way ..."

"Don't talk like mat — oh — please go away!" she murmured desperately.

"In just a moment," he said. "Do you forgive the brutality to which I found myself suddenly moved by your charms of person as well as of face?"

"Oh — yes — I forgive — though I shouldn't. And now will you go away?"

"Yes — and happier than I came. Though I intended to go in here and apply for a job. I have left the store — it seemed to pen me and make me miserable. And there is a man here, I think, named Reed — who advertised this morning for a secretary. Are you his daughter?"

"His wife ..."

"I thought perhaps daughter-in-law," observed "Allen" or "Hopkins" — who, however, had thought nothing of the kind, since he had apprised himself pretty thoroughly regarding this family.

He glanced at her wedding and betrothal rings.

"For I have understood that Mr. Reed is — well — not exactly young," he added.

She did not resent or comment. She was looking at him for the first time since that glance of incredulous recognition, A faint, new flush dyed her oval cheeks. This man, she was reflecting, had touched with those naked fingers upon which she was looking her uncovered sex. Her flush deepened. She was conscious of an intimate throbbing.

"You — you are in need of work?" she asked faintly.

"Yes — and familiar with secretarial work, I think I may say. You see ..."

And he went on to acquaint her with the alleged facts which she was later to recount to her husband.

"I would like this job," he said frankly at last "Perhaps your kindness would extend to permitting me to apply for it. Would it embarrass you too deeply to have a reformed penitent employed by Mr. Reed?"

"A good deal of the work," she said with bowed head, "has to be attended to here instead of at the office. He is at it evenings sometimes ..."

"Ah ..." he breathed.

"You — you are sure you are — reformed?"

"Quite ..."

"Because you might have to stay here some of the time — my husband spoke of wishing a secretary who could be with him late — sleep and eat here on occasions ..."

She blushed more deeply under his gaze — but she floundered on.

"I mean — the house is small — frequent meetings would be inevitable."

"I could bear up under them," he smiled whimsically and admiringly.

"But — don't you see the danger — if that animal of which you spoke should master you again?"

"Must I apologize again? I would do so daily if you wished it ..."

"The risk might keep me nervous. I think you mean what you say — but you have shown yourself — shall we say — terribly impulsive. I could not endure a scandal. My husband, I think, could be very jealous if he ever fancied he had the least occasion. Could you pledge yourself not only to forget but — "

"We've both forgotten ..." he interjected softly.

She halted in same confusion. Leaning against the tree she sank her eyes to the turf.

"Not only to forget," she resumed after a pause, "but never to seek to take the least advantage of — proximities that must occur?"

"I think so ..."

"You must know so! Of course I should be on my guard — and flee if I saw again in your eyes that — oh — that look I saw in the store ..."

"How did I look?" he breathed, drawing a step closer in a real and poorly concealed momentary agitation resembling her own. For indeed this was a very lovely girl who shared with him this peculiar conversation.

"Oh!"

She covered her eyes for a moment with a hand.

"I can't explain how you looked. I had never seen anyone look that way," she faltered at last. "It was the look, I think, almost as much as the ..."

"As the ... ?" he prompted.

"No matter — you know very well! And you must see that if I should ever have to run from you my husband would be up in arms at once — perhaps think unjustly of me, accuse me ..."

"All that will be avoided. You may depend upon me."

"You really need this work — to eke out your income?"

"I do — and it is very hard just now to find such work as I can enjoy doing."

"I might take you to my husband ..."

"That would be wonderful of you!"

"Of course he may not employ you. I think he has had in mind some girl ..."

"Because of — sex?"

She turned a little rosier — and then she smiled.

"If you knew him you would not ask that," said Helen a trifle primly. "No — he is — economical."

"Ah — but, as I have told you, the wage is pretty largely incidental."

"You might mention that to him pretty early — or perhaps I shall tell him myself if I find it necessary in order to get an interview for you."

"The name is Perry Allen."

"I thought I heard the girl call you Hopkins."

He seemed unmoved by this unexpected contingency.

"Perry Hopkins Allen. I used the middle name in the store — not being altogether proud of such an employment — somewhat effeminate for a muscular creature."

"You are — muscular — aren't you?"

There were traces of an admiration which she did not realize in her gaze upon his face and frame.

"I think," he said simply, "that I could, on a small wager, put you up into the crotch of that tree with this right arm."

She shrank a little as he took a couple of steps toward her and extended the aforesaid limb.

"I'm not betting," she disclaimed hastily — and with a nervous glance towards the rear of her home and towards the now vacant yard of the Boerums.

"No — please — I think you are forgetting a little already. Besides — I've already learned how strong you are. You simply tossed me up from that grass."

Chapter VI

"Very capable indeed, this man Allen whom you hired for me," said Daniel Reed approvingly at dinner a couple of days later.

"I didn't hire him," denied his young wife, turning a trifle rosier than of wont.

"Well — you brought him in to see me. And he seems to know a lot about the various stock issues — and a good many other things that make him valuable to me. I know men who would give him sixty instead of thirty.

"I'm afraid all the time that one of them will get on his trail, m give him a raise myself," he added impetuously. "I want to be fair. If I can keep him at my figure until Christmas danged if I don't raise him to thirty-five ..."

Helen bit her lips and looked down. Long ago she had ceased to seek to bring railings or jest to bear upon the ramparts of a penuriousness which only she could ever breach at all — and she only when she put down her small foot.

"I'll tell you," went on her spouse recklessly. "I've got to ask him to stay with us next week — a lot of night work towards the end of the month — and it shan't cost him a penny for room and board — not a penny!"

And soon there were three inmates of the small but cozy and well equipped home — three aside from an efficient and self-effacing maid who preferred to travel between her own home and this house twice a day instead of remaining with her employers.

And the very first evening of the stay in the abode of the new and handsome secretary, that worthy unexpectedly dropped into a chair beside Helen as she read in the sitting room.

"Am I excusable?" he wanted to know smilingly. "Just time for a cigarette if you don't mind — for Mr. Reed is now occupied in going through some securities, for which he doesn't need my aid.

"I could have smoked there, I suppose — but he wrinkles up his fine Roman nose and obviously dislikes the odor. Do you mind?"

"No," said Helen truthfully.

She was conscious, though, of feeling unaccountably moved by this first really retired proximity. He was certainly very nice to look upon.

And — what a memory they had together! She was sure he was thinking of it. There was something in his eyes, bland and pleasant though they were. How dared he! Oh — was there no way of eliminating from his mind — and hers — the fact that he had once slipped a lecherous hand between her bare legs?

And was there no way for her to become calm and serene in his presence? Apparently not. Apparently he would not permit it — now that they were housemates for a time. He seemed to take for granted a certain friendship between them — and now a certain intimacy also.

She had no appeal against even his verbal audacities save protests made to her husband — and such measures would lead inevitably to all sorts of unpleasant inquiries and comments.

The man was certainly being brazen with her this evening — but being so in a winning, confidential way that at first gave her small cause for alarm even though it made the blushes flow and ebb on cheeks which he seemed to like to watch. He made no secret of his admiration — but she felt herself and her emotions played with skillfully.

She tried to be calm and matter-of-fact — a process of which he promptly took advantage by assuming that, since they were both mature persons, they could converse at least as freely as is common among the present younger generation.

She tried a flushed resentment — which faded in face of his wide-eyed and "innocent" aggrievedness over being still held at a distance. She even tried to dislike the man — and this was a flagrant failure from the first.

She was lulled by his voice — and presently she was finding his every pose and expression fascinating. She was like a charmed bird — and the veteran adventurer of thirty-two crowded years who was before her knew that even sooner than a dim realization of their relative statue came upon the girl herself.

Perry Allen — to give him his most recently assumed sobriquet — found himself, too, in an unaccustomed plight. The beauty and sweetness and utterly uncorrupt wifehood of Helen stirred the man mightily in every way.

A voluptuary from youth — a penchant which had driven him from college to become a dangerous rover of the world — he had known what it was to make some swift amour serve financially to make life pleasanter in more respects than one.

And so he had no particular scruples regarding what should happen. Long before this, indeed, his plans concerning the delicious and desirable being now so near him had been formulating — and they were plans tending, he hoped and expected, towards doing many excellent things for himself.

He knew, nevertheless, that never had he been less master of himself in presence of a young woman than now. He was charmed — that was it — charmed. That would not, of course, be allowed to make any difference when it came to the consummation of his little scheme — and he was inclined to be faintly amused over finding himself for the first time in earnest in the effort to bemuse a girl.

But certainly this Helen charmed him. Even her very evident ignorances of life and her inexperiences enticed him. The way in which — after some evident struggle — she presently accepted his ingenuous assumption that, as a married woman of a full year's standing, parlous topics might be brought up for her consideration delighted him the more.

And — since with this man whatever attractiveness a woman might have for him invariably translated itself at once into desire — Helen soon found beating upon her in the very atmosphere of the room the voluptuous emanations of the man's lust for her.

She did not know what it was that caused her such intimate emotions as served to strangle her will to retreat from a conversation and from a union of minds and nerves which had mysteriously become little short of licentious.

But there it was. The choked, shocked little rebuffs with which she had met his first verbal assaults had availed her exactly nothing — nothing save smiles and soft words which had ended in her surrendering more and more of the citadel of her immaculate womanhood to the man.

He had begun by venturing to refer to the fact that her voluntary tumble down that steep little hill, with its accompanying unspeakable exposures, had not been unobserved by him.

"I envied those boys, Mrs. Reed," she heard him incredibly breathing. "Your lovely legs were pointed towards them — involuntarily and thoughtlessly of course."

"Oh — mere children," murmured Helen vexedly — as her indignant glance failed entirely to check the man.

"Old enough — especially the elder — to enjoy the spectacle thoroughly," he remarked suavely. "Indeed — since we are friends now and since you are a married lady, I may ask this — did you not observe, as I thought to do, that this Frank was sexually very excited by what he saw?"

Speechless and flushed, Helen gazed at him. Her first impulse was to spring up and leave the room — her second thought was to rebuke him soundly — her third reflection was that he was very fine looking, very frank and open with her — her fourth dazed idea was that it was shocking but oddly thrilling to find a male speaking to her of things such as it had made her blush even to recall having done — her fifth hypnotized notion was that if she consented to discuss the matter "coolly" with him, then the peril of his speaking to her husband, who must never know of her wild performance, might be obviated.

"I — I didn't notice ..." she said confusedly.

"I would be always frank with you at least," he said after a pause.

She flushed and glanced at him hurriedly.

"I don't fib ..." she murmured.

"Ah!"

She gave him another quick look. There had seemed a hurt resignation as well as incredulity in his tone.

"I'm ashamed," she said in a low voice. "Yes — I did fib. I noticed — what you spoke of ..."

"I didn't see how it could escape you — bewildered though you were," he replied simply. "It was not only the young man's expression as he vaulted the hedge and bent to look under your raised skirt but also that — er — protuberance in his clothing of which perhaps the less said the better. You saw that — the latter?"

"Mr. Allen!"

"Didn't you?"

"Yes," she whispered. "There! But what a topic!"

"Of much interest, I think, to most mature persons like ourselves. If you were a silly girl and I not a man fully ten years your senior — or you too weak mentally to face psychological and physical facts — that would be different."

He paused, gazing into her face. Bowing her head she failed to meet his eyes. But she knew that he had edged his chair closer to hers.

"The point is," he whispered, "what Frank and his young brother saw — to make them so excited. From where I stood I could make out that you wore no drawers — excuse the word — no clothing on your lovely thighs. They gleamed out, white and splendid, from your tumbled skirt and against the green of the grass. If you think it was easy for me to remain on the wrong side of this divine view ...!"

"Mr. Allen — oh — your promise to be — decent!"

"Am I violating it? No my dear lady — nor thinking of doing so. See — you are quite safe with me. And so we can be confidantes, can we not — about small matters of which we know?"

"Why — I suppose," murmured Helen after a pause.

She did not know why there had been an assenting inflection in her voice. Her head whirled — and she vibrated intimately to the discussion which he had begun with such unparalleled daring.

He edged closer. Now he could lean to her ear with a whisper:

"That boy's excited state made me wonder — tell me — had you anything whatever on under that gingham gown?"

"Mr. Allen!"

"Tell me please ..."

"Yes — of course!"

"What?"

"A — a chemise — or — well — a shirt."

"That's all?"

"Y-Yes ..." she assented faintly.

"Then those young persons — one of them practically a man grown — saw all your naked privacies? Nothing hid from them your marvelous buttocks — your genitals?"

"Great heavens — Mr. Allen! Oh — let me go!"

"You exposed yourself as I have said?"

"I oh — I am afraid so."

Succumbing to the arm now laid about her shoulders, Helen trembled. But always she vibrated, vibrated — driven by a shame which seemed luxurious to her nerves.

"You knew as you rolled down that hill what you were putting on display?"

"I — oh!"

"Didn't you?" he pursued almost peremptorily.

There emanated from him an almost tangible mist of passionate delight in this slow torment of her finer feelings and this probing to the secret heart of her hitherto slumbering femininity. Shivering as his surrounding fingers softly gripped the flesh of her shoulder, Helen was aware of a morbid bliss amid the dismal shame of undergoing — and answering — such a catechism as he was daring to give her.

"Yes — I don't know what made me do it!" she found herself stammering.

And then, in full need of exculpating herself as much as possible after this admission, she went on:

"I forgot — until I sat down — how lightly I was clad. And then — well, I found myself rolling anyway. But I didn't know then that Frank was there — I thought there was only the little girl — and Dolph ..."

"Dolph is no child ..."

"I know it — now ..."

"And even then you thought he might be interested?"

"Oh — oh, heavens — yes — it did occur to me ..."

"Why?"

"He had been watching his sister — when she rolled."

"Did she show much?"

"Mr. Allen!"

"Her little pink thing?"

"Heavens — y-yes!"

"Well — he lost interest in it when you revealed a willingness to join their sport. He was all for seeing what was under your own pretty gown then, And who shall blame him in the least?"

"Mr. Allen — please — your arm!"

"Don't mind that arm. This other hand is the one for you to watch."

He smiled blithely into her gray eyes as the startled girl, taking him literally, caught at his right wrist as if fearing that his fingers meant to bore beneath her clothing again as they had in the store.

"You didn't really think I would?" he inquired.

"After my promise?"

"How could I tell?" she faltered. "You — you seem so — strange! And — insisting on talking like this ..."

"Didn't you get — well — a thrill out of knowing how exposed you were to the younger boy there in the sunlight? And then — when you found the older one — a virile, excited youth — stooping brazenly to miss nothing of your white bottom and curling beard and tender, dainty ... ?"

"Father in heaven!" gasped the beleaguered Helen, straggling futilely in the tightening grasp of his left arm. And then, brokenly:

"Really you must — spare me, Mr, Allen. This is all too — terrible!"

"Terrible? Why — I find it divine to chat with you like this — on matters of such interest to us both ..."

"You — you are hugging me!"

"Hugging you! Lord, no! If I ever start in to hug you, you will think it far different from this. And I will admit that I consider you quite the most huggable thing on earth!"

"Please — my husband ..."

"Oh — my worthy employer. What has he to do with our being at reasonably dose quarters for a friendly little chitchat on topics of the day?"

"He may come — he would think me untrue — he wouldn't understand ..."

"We could hear him as he opened and closed his door. Besides he is to call to me when he is ready."

"You make me feel a horrid complicity. Yet you know I haven't even sought to see you save in his presence."

"I know. Are you sorry I'm here?"

"If you'd only — be good."

"I am being excellent. I marvel at my own goodness. Come now — if you find me repellent why not simply say to him that you wish he would discharge me? You could tell him you knew of a girl who would work more cheaply.

"If — if you really mean that you are asking me to be cruel — to rob you of your position ..."

"You couldn't be cruel — that's why I suggested it," he said frankly. "I wish to be nowhere else on earth except right here. Are you glad?"

"What a question! You are the nerviest creature! Why — yes — I'm glad you're here. But if only you would think only of nice things — and allow me to think of only these ...!"

"I am thinking of the nicest things!"

"See — you are being bad — looking at me all over like that!"

"I was thinking — among other things — of what the boy, Frank, saw so clearly — what I myself touched ..."

"You are incorrigible!" she said, scarlet.

"We are friends?"

"Why — I was willing that it should be so — if you could control yourself ..."

"And friends may converse intimately — of knowledge common to both — provided they are really friends?"

"Perhaps you are right."

"Then answer my question ..."

"Didn't you," he asked gently, "feel your fibers throb when you knew that big boy was looking directly between your bare legs?"

"Heavens!"

"Can you be frank? For that's the gist of friendship."

"Yes, then — yes, I did! And now please go away — you seem to have no idea of how you humiliate me!"

"Why feel humiliated over a perfectly natural reaction? And why feel humiliated over confiding it to a trustworthy friend? Have you ever thought of the time when I, losing my head entirely over your beauty, touched your nakedness in the store?"

"A thousand times! How can you dare to bring that up! I have been trying to forget ..."

"We shan't forget ..."

"We?"

"Neither of us. You were already very excited, sweet lady, when I ventured that indelicate but luscious invasion. Your little sex was warm ..."

"Father in heaven — let me go — take your arm away!"

"Can't we discuss this calmly side by side? Tell me — Helen ..."

"Helen!"

"I hate that Mrs. Reed — -feeling towards you as I do. May I use the patronymic?"

"It — well — it's a small matter as compared with what you have already so unblushingly dared."

"The concession is not so gracious — but I accept it — Helen ..."

"But only when we are alone, of course ..."

"Naturally — and you will call me — er — Perry?"

"If I must. It's a rather nice name. If only there were a nicer man attached to it!"

"You find me — not nice?"

"That's the trouble, I find you far too nice to be so very much the reverse of nice at times ..."

"I shall improve with age. Come — let us go into a huddle of friendly confidences. How came you to let those two men in the store handle your adorable bottom as they did?"

"Oh, my God — you saw?"

"Both the stocky roughneck and the elderly gentleman. The former had already been nailed by a store detective doing that same thing on a previous day. There are men who hang about wherever women congregate — and for that purpose alone."

"I didn't know — I thought it accidental — at first. And then I..."

"Tell me, Helen ..."

"Must you hold me so tightly? I — why — when they took hold of me that way — I got so nervous — and I was afraid to make a fuss ..."

"The truth now, dear. After your first fright you loved it."

"Loved it?" she stammered.

"It made you passionate."

"Oh — how can you!"

"You actually projected your great, splendid buttocks towards the elder man at last ..."

"You saw that too. Oh God — I couldn't help it — it made me feel so — strange — to be handled that way! I had never, never been ..."

"I thought it new to you. Your face, when I could see it, was a rosy vision. I would have given much had your bottom been as bare as your face — so that I might note the effect of his tweaks on the snowy skin."

"You are — horrid beyond words! He didn't really pinch me much — though the first man squeezed quite shamelessly — after barely touching on his first passage by me."

"I hadn't come up then when first he approached you. He is swift in his tactics — nervous probably after being ejected from the shop so recently for the same offence. But the second man — the fatherly, elderly, obviously respectable man?"

"Heavens — did you see what he did to me at last — when I was bending towards the counter?"

"No — the crowd was thick — and I had to look between heads."

"He — no — I won't tell you! You are bad enough already without that!"

"I'll squeeze this tender neck harder with this arm — and I have here another hand under poor control!"

"Mr. Allen — Perry — you wouldn't!"

"Tell me then."

"He — the nice looking old man — he ran his fingers — from behind ..."

"Between your legs ..."

"Yes — oh — oh — how I felt!"

"But you never stirred ..."

"How could I — jammed in as I was? But I did try then to turn at least. Oh — my dress was so thin — I could feel his fingers. And then, the first thing I knew, there you were — bowing, offering me your hand."

"Yes — there I was — and perhaps feeling fully as excited as the two men — whom I could gladly have slain!"

"Yet you did nothing about it — I mean — you didn't interfere," she said, accusing in her turn.

"No — though I saw at once that you were a lady — and wholly unused to such defilements or any others — I didn't interfere. I was studying you, you see — noting the effects on you."

"The effects — on me?"

"Yes — I could almost detect the instant when you began to perceive, dimly at first, that the audacities which frightened and confused you could be very agreeable in their effect ..."

"You are utterly shameless! And — come to think of it — you were far worse than the others — even from the start. Your words were courteous as you conducted me through the crowd — but your fingers ..."

"Ascribe my fondlings to a friendliness already felt. For I had seen how deliciously you had enjoyed — even amid your fear and shame. I disliked the idea of allowing your passion to subside for lack of a few caresses."

"Don't joke — it was fearful of you! You touched me — my bosom — and then — down below!"

"Here, darling?"

"Don't touch my lap — and don't call me darling! You are — oh — have a little mercy, Perry!"

"How can I help refraining from what displeases you — when you ask me like that? Yes — I touched you — and then — at the counter ..."

"Don't remind me! And another thing — even before you were brazen enough to touch me as I had never been touched before ... !"

"Your husband?"

"No — not even by him. But the things you had the audacity to make me listen to — while you showed me that underwear."

"I am a very choice salesman — when I wish," smiled the unrepentant Allen.

"Yes — doubtless! You knew that I was in a fearful flurry — and you knew why. You knew that I was physically incapable of budging. And you murmured things about my being naked — and how I would look to my husband — and how I should put on certain garments — and about slits in some of them. I could have dropped through the floor!"

"Nobody heard."

"I did — I was forced to! And some folks were watching us curiously. And then — great heavens — you dropped the garment you held — purposely of course — I see it now — and insulted me as deeply as it is possible to insult a woman!"

"You think that? Ah, my lovely and ingenuous Helen — what do you know of insults? I may have to school you a trifle in the possibilities of affronts ..."

"Let me go — God — don't take me on your lap! I — oh, Perry!"

"Do you wish to learn about insults from me?"

"No, no — no — please! No — I won't kiss you — never in this world!"

"Why not?"

"I am married — and besides — you have been horrid to me — you are being horrid now!"

"It is hard to restrain this right hand. Those superb calves are so tempting ..."

"Perry — I beg of you! You wouldn't go back on your word and insult me again — now that we are friends!"

"Ah — we're friends still, then. But friends kiss as well as confide in each other."

"They don't — do they? Oh — don't tempt — I mean don't make me ...!"

"I should be very careful, of course, not to distress thereafter a sweet friend who had kissed me confidingly."

"Oh — I don't believe you — I can't believe you! But — here then ... !"

"Dear Helen!"

Chapter VII

The rapid capitulation of the chaste young wife to a most remarkable degree of intimacy with this temporary invader of the home was due to many elements — of most of which she had not the slightest inkling as yet.

There can be little doubt that, under a cloud of blighted but hitherto very genuine modesty, she found it presently immensely exciting to converse with a man — especially such a young and fascinating man — about such topics as he was always introducing when they were alone together.

These were mental and moral and even spiritual violations to which he introduced her — and with such keen interest on his own part in effecting these violations and in seeing her unacknowledged enjoyment of them that he did not much mind the impossibility — or the postponement — of a purely physical violation.

A sharp line was presently drawn — partly tacitly and partly by verbal compact — between what was permissible and what was not permissible between them. They could talk together of any topic which he wished to introduce — that was understood — and he introduced some "knockouts" to the consideration of the more and more inflammable Helen.

If very excited — and more and more she was prone to admit her own sensual agitation when it arose and to accept cognizance of his — they could even cling and kiss hotly for long, wonderful, silent minutes which she found delightful even while they tortured her deliciously.

But of physical caresses of more intimate orders there must be no question between them.

They were confidantes — that was it, as Helen repeated again and again to herself — confidantes to whom no subject was forbidden — and friends who were intimate enough to kiss each other at times.

And yet she was under a queer sort of compulsion too — the compulsion of a threat whose carrying into effect she often burned for — yet from which she shrank unutterably — perhaps in a subconscious fear of consequences as well as in an inbred physical modesty which lingered after she had abandoned, to all intents and purposes, all verbal modesty with this man.

It was under the threat of a swaying hand at her round knees — a hand which threatened a repetition of the offence of the store — that she had consented in trepidation to the compact which made him free to interrogate her on any matter however intimate and to expect her to converse freely and frankly upon that subject.

And if he touched her lovely bosom — threatening silently to undo her clothing and invade her breasts with eyes and fingers — she squirmed into a tremulous assent to whatever else he wished — "if only you will leave my body alone, Perry."

It is probable that, in every way except a certain lack of honor in the man where his own comfort or desires were concerned — a total lack, indeed — this pair were ideally mated. Physically they were striking even when apart — and even more so when together.

And it is perhaps fortunate that they had no more competent a critic ever to see them together than was the money absorbed Daniel Reed — since almost any other would have been likely to hem and haw about the situation in spite of the demure care which they took to be very cautious regarding their surprising new alliance and understanding when Daniel was about.

But each of the two had his or her odd innate licentiousnesses. Their instincts paired in a way — and these instincts were being pretty fully glutted without as yet any adventurings into a physical field.

Put upon her honor to be always truthful with her odd mental lover — a pledge corresponding with her natural instincts towards veracity — and never to refuse to answer him, Helen would find herself seated tete-a-tete with him and describing to him exactly how she was clad beneath the outer garb which was clearly in his sight.

If she admitted being bare legged above her stockings — which was frequently, since she had acquired even in her later schooldays a strange dislike for feeling her body more confined than was necessary — she was likely to be asked what sensations if any it gave her to feel her naked thighs rub together when she walked or crossed her legs.

Upon her flushed admission — this was in the earlier stages of their unacknowledged amour — that a more than vague sensuousness often penetrated her consciousness from these inevitable self touches, Perry questioned her whether it hadn't actually been the desire to feel this soft rubbing of satin warmth upon satin warmth which had in the beginning led her to detest bloomers and all the tribe of cousins of bloomers.

At first Helen denied this — wonderingly rather than resentfully. Then she checked herself — sat up straighter in the arm with which he was accustomed to encircle her now when he wished — and finally, after candidly searching her earlier and present mind for motives, she told him that it had indeed been as he surmised, she thought.

"Rub them together now," he suggested licentiously. "And see if you get a distinct thrill."

The blonde girl complied ashamedly.

"Oh — I can't tell," she pleaded. "It feels nice — but when I am with you and talking as we do I am so constantly — excited that I can't make out whether this pressure together of my legs has any special effect of its own on my senses."

It was her first admission of knowledge of the effect upon her passions of their new and quasi innocent relations with each other.

"Little volcano!" he called her.

"No, no — don't call me that!"

"You are that — and I'm a large volcano. Did you ever like to wander in the breezes — dressed as you now are, with crotch naked under a short gown — and feel sometimes the air play upon your bare pussy?"

"Perry — we weren't to have any unpleasant words!"

"I think that word pleasant However — we'll make it slit if you like ..."

"No!"

"Well — sexual nook then. Did you ever lift your gown a bit — sitting perhaps out of doors and with no one else in sight — and revel in the feeling of the wind blowing upon your naked privacies?"

She nodded ashamedly.

"And did you ever fancy — in such a breeze — how the men you passed upon the street would look if the wind should suddenly thrash your gown above your hips and show you to such male passers as indecently as possible?"

"Perry!"

"Have you ever had that thought?"

She nodded again after some delay.

"But I thought," she murmured, "that it was fear of such a catastrophe rather than any sensuousness that moved me. I wrote it once in my diary — and then I tore up the leaf I had written on."

He left this lovely child of twenty-three — hitherto guilelessly innocent of worldly knowledge even if ignorantly passionate — no mental coverts whatever. He probed into every intimacy of her nerves — and, verbally, into every intimacy of her body.

And Helen, suffering shock after shock, learned quickly to reveal ashamedly in her revelations to this man and to anticipate with twitching fear and pleasure the moments when he could steal seclusion with her.

He presently led her to describe fully to him the nakedness which only her bathroom ever saw. With bated breath and scarlet cheeks, she sighed and stammered forth her own impressions of her breasts, her belly, her naked legs and hips and buttocks.

"Thank you," he breathed. "I can almost see you in my mind's eyes — standing there before your long mirror — gazing at your stark nudity with eyes in which a little appreciative glow can hardly fail to arise ..."

"I don't — study myself like that — much ..." she denied confusedly.

"Helen!"

"Well, then — yes — yes, I do — recently. I didn't mean to fib — only it means such a horrid thing for a girl to do! I remember ..."

She checked herself — with a faint, embarrassed smile into the blueness of his eyes.

"You remember?"

"I remember that it was the evening after you had — well — practically captured me in the store and had done to me what you did that I went early to bed. I was horribly shaky. And I took off everything — and stood there in the clear light — looking at myself — in the mirror and also directly. I was very flushed — I was — unsteady."

"Wishing that hubby would chance to come in?"

"That — never! I should have shrieked and caught up my kimono. I should have scolded Sim vehemently."

"Ah? You must explain that later."

"No, Perry — don't bring him into our — chats!"

"There is no restriction, remember, on topics. But you committed a grave omission in your description of what you saw in the mirror. What about the dainty parts which I had the unforgettable joy of touching briefly on a certain occasion?"

"Perry!"

"I wish to know how they look. Or shall I ask one of those boys next door?"

"I verily believe you would! You enjoy plunging me into the depths of mortification, don't you?"

"You showed them your pussy, sweetness — and your little rosy — groove ..."

"Oh, but you are horrid to me sometimes! You make it sound so very brazen — yet you know that it was just a sudden, inexplicable impulse — a childish one — and that I didn't know the older boy was anywhere about."

"A sudden impulse — yes. But not inexplicable nor very childish. Distinctly wanton and beautifully forgivable — the delicious instinct of a lady in heat."

"Perry — do you wish me to roll on the carpet in bitter shame!"

"I shouldn't mind. Possibly I could be favored then as were Frank and Dolph."

"I hate you!"

"Then kiss me ..."

"I won't — well — just one little one, then. Only — you mustn't use your big, soft tongue the way you did last evening. Perry — that almost drove me crazy!"

"You shall tell me later what that innocent tongue does to your nerves. While I illustrate the process you may describe, item by item, the effect upon you ..."

"Perry — these confessions upon which we have agreed to enter are so one-sided. It seems to me that it is always I who have to be opening out my very soul — while you just sit and hear — and see my blushes."

"I sip them — I eat them — these blushes! I do admit things to you, though, Helen. And presently — when you are just a bit more — toughened, shall we say — you shall hear confessions from me!"

"Ah — you make me shiver! There is something in your eyes!"

Chapter VIII

"Tell me now just how your dainty privacies look in the glass," he resumed after an interruption.

"I — I can't! Well — you probably have something of an idea. You've seen — girls?"

"What a question! And I thirty-two years of age!"

She bit her lip.

"I don't like to hear it," she said ingenuously. "That seems odd, I know — but — I don't like to hear it. Here you are — admitting that you've roamed around looking at — girls — for years! And then wanting to hear about just one poor girl — shaming her!"

"I've done nothing of the kind," he smiled. "Besides I wasn't reformed then. And I pledge you my hope-to-die word that I'd rather hear just your inadequate description of your own loveliness than to see a thousand others freely with my eyes. Tell me — Helen, about the adorable little lower belly."

"It's not adorable. It's just — frizzy. There's a good deal of a mound rising where the — belly — ends. And hair — quite a lot — sort of a triangle — grows on it. Then — that's all."

"Ah, eh? Madam, your deformities must be looked into by a solicitous and competent friend! All, Helen? Ah — yours is a sad case indeed! Painful though I find the duty, I must investigate. Possibly something may yet be done for you."

"Perry — I shall certainly scream — if your hand goes one inch under my clothes — or if you lift them!"

"My affectionate alarm is aroused upon learning that your warm lap contains merely a soft grove. If that is all, there is something very wrong. I must see — even if I have to strip you to the skin from toes to head!"

"No, no, no! There is — more — I will tell you — if you will stop scaring me to death!"

"Ah — what a relief! I breathe again ..." "And I really did stop breathing. See — I am shaking yet. Perry — you would never violate our compact — and distress me by?"

"No — unless I have to make you frank."

"I will be frank."

"And not until — I mean unless — you should wish it yourself — and make me understand the fact clearly."

"That — never — oh — not ever!"

"Hardly ever?"

"Never — I wish to remain faithful to my marital pledge — even if ..."

"Even if?"

"Even if it means but little ..." she said, flushing.

"We shall return to that topic, milady ..."

"You mustn't ask what I mean. Perry — I know that talking as I do with you is terrible. But it doesn't actually constitute infraction of my pledge at the altar, does it? I didn't promise not to talk — as intimately as I like — with a friend."

"No — " he said with a delighted smile. "You are on safe ground — and I also ..."

"Don't laugh. This is important — to me."

"And devilish important to me! Quaint little conscience busy, eh? Don't listen to it — it's a misleader. Now then — tell me about the hair — et al."

"It curls — it is darker than the hair on my head."

"Darker than this?"

"Leave my armpits alone. I should never have worn this sleeveless gown. Yes — darker than that. It is more a reddish dark brown."

"With this sunny gold on your head! That seems odd. You are sure you are right? In case of obvious mistakes I must verify, understand. You feel certain it is not a reddish gold — or bronze?"

"I told you there was a sort of reddish tinge."

"All right — let that pass for the present. And now — what else?"

"Nothing much — in the mirror — unless I — part my legs."

"But if you part them you see?"

"If I'm sitting down ..." she whispered.

"What?"

"Oh, Perry — don't make me! It's — well — sort of a pale pink. It opens the least bit — when I spread my thighs as far as I can."

"Sweetness!"

"No — d-don't touch me — don't take me in your arms. How ashamed I am — how did I ever come to be talking like this with you!"

"Look up, Helen. We were to be brave, you know. You — touch this rosy dainty?"

"No, no — certainly not — only when I bathe!"

Her voice died away in startled murmurs as he caught her frantically to him. Long since past were the quiet, "friendly" kisses which she had been persuaded to exchange with him in their interviews.

Infinitely agitated as the girl became in the course of their usually whispered parleys, the embraces and kisses to which she had come to surrender herself were wont now to assume an almost copulative frenzy of acute or somber delight.

And so it was now — but with an added pang and indecency. For, struggling and sighing, Helen permitted herself at last to be drawn face downward the length of the masculine figure which lay back in a low chair.

As they dung together, vibrating and aching in a lust which must not be acknowledged, the posture itself took on the characteristics of the complete yoking of the senses. The girl's warm, soft lips had yielded with a wee moan to those of the man.

Their mouths were glued together now for breathless seconds which Helen would have wished prolonged into an eternity.

Raising her fair head at last and looking down upon the man with dying eyes in which there slumbered, nevertheless, a fire which startled a male who had once been wont to think of himself as blase, Helen trembled suddenly.

Perry knew what had penetrated the mist of her passion — he knew that she had just realized clearly what it was upon which her heaving, thinly veiled lower belly had been resting — that just now had the outstanding prominence of his great weapon gored to her understanding as well as pressed more deeply into the softness of her flesh. Paling a little, she shrank in his arms. Then suddenly as he raised his head a few inches as if imploringly, her parted lips dashed to meet his.

Her mouth encountered this time a red and penetrating tongue. Sighing and shaking, she withdrew hastily — and then, opening lips and teeth, she slowly absorbed that wet morsel within her mouth.

No longer had Perry to guide, admonish or persuade the vibrating Helen. How she sucked his tongue with rapture — she licked it with abandon. Her tongue sought out all the recesses of his mouth to caress them softly, libidinously.

Slowly her tongue withdrew at last. But this time it was as if coquettishly, coaxingly — guiding into her own mouth the male tongue which ardently accompanied the retreating feminine one.

And all this time — given over hopelessly now to an abandon whose gravity her whirling head refused to apprehend or admit — since surely they were "just kissing" still — the soft, warm belly of the girl writhed upon the fascinating stiffness of the male member — veiled from her flesh by merely a single layer of fabric upon each of the participants in this "kiss."

Suddenly — while their tongues still smote and licked and fondled each other — while her own tongue was making the entrancingly futile effort to expel his from her mouth, Helen shivered like a leaf in a breeze.

Gasping and in a tumult of both senses and body, she managed to extricate herself and to arise. With hands over her eyes, she staggered to another chair and sank into it.

He came in a moment to touch her lovely hair gently and to take her hand. Her soft fingers gripped his own tightly — but she shrank in alarm as he kissed her brow lightly.

"No, no!" she quavered in a whisper. "Wait — oh, wait — I!"

Knowing well what was the matter with the sensitive girl, he waited. At length she was able to smile up at him ashamedly.

"We must never — do that — with our tongues, you know — again, Perry!" she whispered.

Chapter IX

The mental violation of the young wife of the aging millionaire went on. Indeed, so fascinated was the man guilty of it — a dilettante in his passionate recreations and just now finding a new and unique charm in his strange relations with the blonde beauty — that he postponed actions which others invisible at his back waited impatiently to fulfill at his bidding.

If he enjoyed so fully what was going on between them, perhaps Helen enjoyed it twice as much. This was a new world of her starved, strained senses.

She could always palpitate infinitely — and had sometimes found her throbbing, unseen reservoirs overflowing amid pangs of ecstasy that left her pallid for a time — through the mere verbal shamelessness of surrendering to this man all veils covering her mind, her desires, her daily experiences, her more and more passionate and sensual dreams.

And he was able always to select the very instant when, if he caused her to cease to speak of things more and more unutterable and took her to his arms for "friendly" kisses, she would be likely to writhe and sigh very shortly in a spasm which shook her every fibre.

He drew from her confessions of every such experience. Even if — as sometimes happened — a seminal outburst came upon her outside his presence from merely thinking of what had been said between them and of their kisses, Helen was always led to admit the fact and to describe as best she could the sensations experienced, what had led to them, the duration and violence of the emission, how she felt in the aftermath of it.

Bitterly the girl reproached herself at first for these involuntary spasms — esteeming these experiences at least as being in the category of physical infidelities to her marriage vows.

But Perry was able, with plausible, soothing words and arguments, to convince a girl who wished to be convinced that a mere emission was as nothing as related to marital life or pledges — that such a thing might happen to any healthy man or woman even in sleep.

On a nature rendered more malleable by the almost constant ebullition of torrid desires aroused by their queer seances together — desires never normally gratified — the perverse man began presently to stamp more corrupting suggestions and insistences.

Knowing her loyal to a pledge, he caught her one day in a sort of blind wager on some minor and unimportant difference of opinion between them on a question of fact The loser was to perform some little "stunt" suggested by the winner and to be chosen after the bet was decided.

Losing and admitting she had been wrong, Helen expected nothing more deadly to be imposed upon her — since actual impropriety was barred between them by the terms of their original compact — than perhaps one of those long and luscious kisses — or perhaps that she should be obliged to rake her past memories for some of the innocently sensual recollections of her placid girlhood and recount it to him as he sometimes wished.

Perry seemed to rake his mind for a minute before deciding what to impose upon her. And when he at last made known to Helen that he wished to see her expose herself to the older Boerum boy with even more indecency than had characterized her former involuntary but libido inous exploit, she stared at him incredulously for a moment.

"Ah — you smile — you are joking — you had me scared for a second," she said relievedly.

"I am not joking — I want to study the effect upon both you and him. I got — listen, Helen to an admission — I got very agitated merely from watching you before — even though I saw but little of your lovely flesh myself."

"But — good heavens!"

"He's only a boy."

"The other time you said he was a man practically. He will be eighteen next week, his small sister was telling me. It's shameful, what you wish, Perry — and he might speak of it too!"

"None of the youngsters betrayed your former — indiscretion?"

"I suppose not. The parents have seemed just the same to me as before."

"You see — it is quite safe."

"But why revive the queer, horrid impulse to which I yielded unthinkingly? Besides — if you wish to see the scene you, too, would see me — and that is a violation of all that we have pledged each other."

"No — I shall look on from a window. I shall not see under your clothes. The boy will not even know he is seen as this unexpected treat is offered him with apparent entire unconsciousness."

Helen set her teeth and went doggedly about the fulfilment of his wish on the very same afternoon. Chancing to note that Frank was reading in his yard all alone — and at a time when Perry was unoccupied and with her — she went into her own leafy backyard and, after greeting the boy over the hedge, she began idly to toss a rubber ball against the house and to catch it as it rebounded.

"Oh, pshaw!" she cried vexedly at last "There it goes into your yard, Frank — "

"I'll get it and bring it to you," he proffered eagerly, as he chased the rolling sphere.

"You might just toss it back ..."

"No — I'd better bring it."

With long legs as he bestrode the low hedge presently — to find his pretty neighbor presumably fatigued by her exertions — for she was sitting upon the grass and leaning against the house.

"I got tired," she said, taking the ball and thanking him. "What is that book you are reading, Frank?"

The boy — who had never been able to forget a certain view which he had had of this lovely woman — seized gladly upon the excuse of her seeming curiosity to hand her the volume for inspection and to sit down opposite her feet.

The latter small and shapely objects — extended demurely before her beneath full calves and slim ankles arrayed in gray silk — seemed, with their upper reaches above, to catch and hold his eyes.

"Oh ..." she said, not seeming to pay attention to her guest at all, "this looks interesting — -adventure, isn't it? May I glance at it a minute?"

Presumably she forgot even his presence as she found exciting pages to scan. In any event, it was but half a minute before, after certain nervous crossings and uncrossings of the delightful limbs which the boy surreptitiously but constantly watched, a round knee popped out from under the white skirt and was slowly raised as the little foot sought a resting place nearer the body of the girl.

During this elevation of the bent knee the fabric of the skirt fell somewhat away from the glories of the white thigh above — or, rather, below when in this position.

Frank stared now frankly with all his eyes. In his infinite curiosity regarding all the wonderful things which he had once seen — and had since dreamed of — he did not even watch the face of his neighbor to see whether she was still preoccupied with the book.

Helen was, though — to all appearances — so preoccupied as to be lost to her surroundings. The other knee bent and arose gradually. The boy panted so ardently that even a man lurking at an ivied, open window above thought he heard the quickened breathing.

It was clear that — even though the silk clad calves and rounded knees were pressed together — the happy, excited Frank could see the expanses of naked thigh to either side of the closed legs.

The watching man smiled in the gloom of his retreat. He saw the knees of Helen part very slowly. He saw her twist uneasily upon her buttocks as she began to savor once again the thrills attending this perverse self-exposure to male eyes.

He saw the eyes of the boy glow — saw a swelling begin to manifest itself and to grow steadily upon his outspread lap — as the calves, knees, thighs of the seated woman lounged farther and farther apart.

The knees were separated now by more than a foot of space. Perry saw that Helen was surreptitiously watching the face of Frank herself now — and she saw it red and glowing — the eyes intent.

She saw, too, the protuberance within the trousers. Her knees parted yet more — and there could be no doubt — since she had fittingly arrayed her body in nothing save a brief shirt beneath her gown — the youth was seeing clearly all of her secrecies.

Perhaps — since she had already accomplished the paying of her wager to Perry — and had found a morbid gratification in so doing — Helen was upon the very eve of ending her perverse revelations. Indeed, her knees had begun to draw together — when there was an exclamation from the lips of Frank.

"Oh — a mouse!" he cried.

"Where — oh, where?" clamored Helen.

Genuinely terrified — since she had that nervous dread of the little pests characteristic of her sex — she was already trying to scramble up and perhaps flee. But the boy, flushed to the gills as he swiftly launched the uncandid little plot which had occurred to him, stayed her with a pointing forefinger,

"There — there — I saw it!" he said. "It ran — under there."

He was indicating her half raised skirt as he spoke.

"Oh, my God!" wailed the young woman. "Where?"

"I'll get it ..."

"Hurry — do hurry — I think I feel the horrid thing — oh — creeping!"

"Sit quite still, Mrs. Reed. It can't really hurt you, you know."

"I'm so afraid of them! Shall I shake my clothes?"

She did so vehemently — and, this time with only dread instead of lechery in her mind she gave the already inflamed Frank a greater and fuller display of her unclad intimacies than he had ever yet had.

Too excited to consider courtesy — or, indeed, anything save his burning desire of touching what he saw — he lunged forward.

"I see it," he proclaimed huskily and untruthfully. "I'll get it."

And his hand shot to a bare and wriggling thigh.

"May I — get it — drive it out?" panted the boy.

Still taken in by the little plot over whose construction by a lad so young a man chuckled softly in a window above their heads, Helen yet thought only of that fearful and dangerous mouse.

"Hurry — have you got it?" she gasped. "Oh — it's wriggling — I can feel it!"

With a sort of swift deliberation the ingenuously licentious youth ran those happy fingers all about on the naked, warm thighs in the course of his quest for the non-existent animal.

"There it goes — underneath!" he cried.

And, as the girl shuddered, he ran the brazen fingers down beneath her naked rump.

"Oh — it's so indecent, Frank!" she quavered. "Do hurry and capture it!"

"It's hiding — oh — there it goes," he muttered.

And his fingers passed swiftly under the short shirt. The girl felt them now upon her belly.

"Oh, my God — it can't be — there!" she wailed.

And the lurking man above, who could see her flushed profile only, noted a quickly glance at the daring lad — a glance which told the former both that Helen had at last penetrated the sensual treachery of Frank and that she was hoist by her own petard — that she was shivering now not with fear of an imaginary mouse but with impassioned and shamed appreciation of these touches.

"For shame, Frank!" she said tremulously.

"It's here!" he insisted.

And, almost forcing the young woman back against the bricks of the building, he forcibly parted with both his hands the thighs which she had clenched together and which were revealed to their summits, as she raised her knees again as if protectively, by the lone skirt slipping into her lap.

Too far gone in his youthful lechery now to be deterred by reproaches or feeble resistance, the boy drove Helen's knees far apart. And, gazing in rapture on the intimate beauties thus unveiled, he thrust an audacious hand to the darkly golden grove, to the delicate rose of the cleft beneath.

"How dare you!" quavered Mrs. Reed.

Wide-legged and wide-eyed — with shoulders resting against the house — she was so nearly naked now that even Perry could see — or could have seen had it not been for the brazen hand of Frank — every least detail of her fair sexualities. But she seemed robbed of strength by sheer agitation — and so, indeed, she was.

"How dare you — F-Frank!" she whispered tremulously again.

"It was this hair that fooled me," he averred with a short of dogged shyness now — as he realized more fully the extent to which he had allowed his sensual curiosity and desire to lead him.

"There never was a mouse — was there?" whispered Helen faintly.

"Perhaps not — but something moved."

"You have been wicked beyond belief — scaring me like that — and — oh — t-take your hand away!"

"In just a moment — please — just an instant!"

"I shall faint — or c-call for — h-help!"

"No — oh, how lovely you are — down here!"

"Great God — was there ever such a boy! Frank — must I call to your mother?"

"No, Mrs. Reed — she would think it funny the way you dress — you wouldn't like her to know — nor to know of your rolling down hill the other day...."

Chapter X

Even in the vast agitation of Helen — an agitation increased mightily by the dawning realization that Perry was viewing and listening — the young wife understood the threat to which the boy's excitement had driven him.

Crumpling in fear of the danger of becoming a neighborhood scandal, she stammered weakly:

"It was just fun — an accident — you wouldn't tell — would you?"

"No," he muttered — ashamed now of having seemed to threaten.

But he continued to finger and to scan the delicious secrecies which he had uncovered. And, as a fingertip bore heavily upon the rosy borders which it traversed, Helen suddenly stiffened and moaned.

"Let me up — at once!" she cried imperatively.

And she had half struggled to a sitting posture when Frank — crazed at the idea of saying farewell to these beauties and yielding suddenly, with boyish brutality, to the inexplicable impulse which had been upon him ever since unveiling this wee flower of a sex — forced her backward full length and, baring her to above the navel, he sank hot, lecherous lips between the extended thighs.

Incredulous, shamed and amazed by the unbelievable experiences she was undergoing, Helen was physically incapable of motion. She felt the warm lips press an ardent kiss on the very portals of her sex. She wailed softly and trembled as if in an ague — striving vainly for words to recall the youth to his senses from what, she was persuaded, was a sort of sudden, incredibly licentious lunacy.

Baring her to the very breasts as she lay with only her sunny head propped against the building, her face scarlet and her gray eyes wide and glazed, Frank ran his hands over the satin belly and kissed hotly not only that snowy plain but the curling grove which adorned a soft, plump mound at its base.

Then his lips returned thirstily to the pink furrow beneath — and the blonde lady, sighing, writhing, moaning inaudible words which may have been those of protest, fairly jumped upon her naked buttocks as she felt a silken, moist, triply lecherous something drawn upon all the groove which still throbbed to the preceding kisses of the ignorantly lascivious but inspired boy.

Looking on — forgotten now by even his mental lady love — the lurking Perry wondered at the ardor of this stalwart, embryo man as he expressed so lusciously his enthusiasm for the private charms of the youthful wife of his neighbor.

There was a certain gaucherie about the attack of Frank which seemed to deny that he had had experience already in this method of giving a lady pleasure of the keenest variety.

And yet — there he was — obviously crazy to "taste" the lovely girl after showering torrid and intimate kisses upon her person. Possibly it was an innate but hitherto buried characteristic of the youth's already well advanced sexual yearnings that prompted him. Possibly, too, there had been earlier experiences which led him to wish to bestow such caresses.

With his great member swollen and throbbing, the man watched the proceedings for yet a moment. He saw that Helen, though shamed beyond words by what was going on and still in a daze of incredulity that a sane youth could wish to caress her in this unheard of fashion, was yet too passionately weakened by her sensations as she writhed beneath prolonged lickings of her slit, to be able to protect herself against the "infamy" or even to remonstrate in audible words.

As the girl suddenly groaned and twisted — clearly on the verge of a spasm even though the presumably ignorant tongue had not as yet attempted to penetrate her body — Perry leaned from the window to enjoy more fully the vision of her almost total nudity and of her furious, shamed rapture.

But, glancing aside, he thought to detect a figure passing a window of the Boerum house and moving toward a rear door.

Hastily — for any visit to that neighboring yard would almost certainly result in discovery of what was going on at the rear of the Reed house — Perry tossed a rolled kerchief down beside the woman and the boy.

Startled, Frank raised his head. He looked at the kerchief and then apprehensively above. He saw no one at the open window — for Perry had quickly shrunk from view.

But the warning — mysterious though it was — served to break the licentious spell which bound both Mrs. Reed and the audacious young "lover" who had so wantonly and perversely thrust himself upon her in consequence of her own exhibitionist audacity.

"Quick — hurry!" she stammered in a frightened whisper. "There is someone about — oh — what — what were you doing to me, Frank!"

Hastily he drew down her attire — covering her with shirt and gown. He arose and swiftly crossed over the hedge and into his own yard.

Not too soon either. Perry had averted an almost certain calamity with his anonymous and silent warning. For even as Frank reached his yard a door opened and his mother thrust forth her head. She enjoined upon him some errand.

She bowed, smiled and cast a cheerful word to Mrs. Reed, her attractive and well liked young neighbor — who had managed to stagger to her feet and was now leaning against an arbor — with a rapidly beating heart which, fortunately, Mrs. Boerum could not see.

The elder woman re-entered her home. Helen, trying to emulate' her example, swayed as she walked. She clung to the ivy upon the building — and Perry, who had seen her plight of continuing physical unsteadiness from the window, opened the door and led her like a child within.

Once inside, he lifted and carried her.

"Oh, my God — my God — my God!" was all that she could say — in a series of gasps — as she found herself seated in her sitting room.

"Steady — steady!" he said, smiling calmly.

"You — you saw, Perry?" she whispered faintly.

He nodded.

"It was wonderful!" he told her.

"Wonderful! It was — unbelievable!"

"Control yourself. Yes — it was quite an experience."

"See what you brought about by exacting that shameful display of myself to the boy!"

"He doesn't regret it — nor do I. Do you?"

"I wouldn't have believed it possible! He stripped me to the armpits — I was naked — you saw that?"

"A sight of a beauty beyond even my imaginings."

"You were never to see me like that!"

"I was never to try to see your lovely body. But — since chance brought it about — I may be permitted to thank the powers that brought so ravishing a glimpse ..."

"Is the boy crazy? You saw what he did!"

"He is far from crazy. He is a young fox. He caught you neatly with his fake mouse scare — which enabled him to feel deliciously the charms which so enticed him."

"Yes," she admitted. "But — afterwards — his lips — his tongue — I was crazy if he wasn't! Who ever heard of such a thing — wishing to kiss a girl there!"

"Plenty of persons have heard of it — and plenty have gladly done it ..."

"Perry!"

"You enjoyed it — after getting over your first shock of amazement?"

"Don't ask me that — I was never so ashamed in all my life!"

"But you enjoyed it — you nearly spent, you know — "

"Horrors — you saw that too?"

"You would have been nipped by the respectable Mrs. Boerum in the very midst of a spasm if I hadn't cast out the handkerchief — which, by the way, I see you have retrieved for me."

"Here it is. How it startled me! It hit me right on the stomach."

"An excellent shot!" smiled Perry.

"Frank jumped when it landed right by his brow. Do you think there is any danger that he will speak to his folks of — of — anything that happened?"

"Not the slightest ..."

"He spoke as if he might mention my rolling down the hill — and my omission of drawers — I was scared — imagine what his mother would think — and say!"

"He wanted to scare you — and he succeeded thus in doing what he liked. But he is more frightened now than you ever were — fearing you may complain to his mother ..."

"He should know better. How could I ever dare speak to anyone — except you — of what occurred — -and, of course, he doesn't know about you ..."

"Unfortunate fellow! But his deprivation in not knowing about me is quite pleasantly atoned for by his knowing now very much about you ..."

"Great heavens — I should say he does ...! Shall I ever be able to forget that? Perry — when he licked — you know — right on the spot — I almost went mad!"

"He would have licked inside if he had known enough — or, perhaps, he did know enough — and was just preparing to intrude that voluptuous tongue when the interruption came ..."

"I should have fainted!"

"With bliss, sweet lady ..."

"I shall never dare face him again!"

"Why not? If he should be fortunate enough to find you sitting silently among the bushes at the very depths of this yard — and you should simply smile at him — rest assured that he would need no further encouragement than that.

"He would leap the hedge — creep to you — discover that once again you wore no drawers — and this time, without saying ever a word, you could let him complete your ecstasy ..."

"Perry — you counsel that! Why — that would be a real infidelity to my husband — wouldn't it?"

"Simply a delicate and harmless treat. Do you feel yourself tempted?"

"Don't ask me — I'm certain you don't mean it."

"I do mean both the advice and the question."

"You are — beyond words! Well — yes — I do feel tempted. But that is just because I am still a little shaky and agitated. I should never think of — trying to find out whether he really wanted to — do it again. And I am surprised that you should advise such a corrupting thing!"

But she reddened under his whimsical gaze. He knew well the unstrung state in which the shocking, uncompleted assault of Frank — coming immediately upon the heels of her intentional self-exposure — had left her. And he could see that she was unconfessedly receptive to the crude and lecherous suggestion he had dared to make.

In point of fact, the "shock point" of Helen had receded greatly under the almost daily impact of her strange relations with the young man. Conversations which were nothing but twenty minutes or half an hour of licentious confidences — almost entirely on her part — had eaten away inevitably the delicacy of her moral fiber.

Tingling constantly in his presence — and out of it also much of the time — she took now a morbid pleasure in breathing into his ears things which not even her mother could ever have drawn from her.

The fact that the hugs and kisses to which she had succumbed constituted the sole actual physical relations between them served only to keep her senses in a state of exacerbated delirium. And even while he blessed the childish, ignorant licentiousness which delivered the young beauty thus into his arms while leaving her intact, Perry observed in keen but silent interest the decay of her power of resistance against temptation to more carnal experiences than those which she enjoyed with him.

Speedily convinced that Frank Boerum had breathed never a word of what had happened — since his mother continued to be pleasantly neighborly — Helen felt working within her the virus of a longing to be naked again before this "lad" — as she persistently called him to herself — and to let Mm carry out to the full that unbelievable whim of his upon her body. After passing through all the phases of dire shame and luscious confusion with the boy, she had at the last flamed with a dull, sombre ecstasy under his lips and tongue — only to be baffled at the frenzied spasm which she had felt herself upon the verge of undergoing.

She saw him two days later in his yard — -and flushed at sight of him. She saw that he was as shy as was she — for he lurked in the shade and, reddening, stood stock still, doubtless in fear that he might be in for a "wigging" or for cold contempt.

She managed to smile at him — to say a few words in a pleasant way — to act as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever occurred. He answered nervously — showed himself more plainly — advanced towards the hedge.

His folks were gone for the day, he told her in response to her reference to the apparent solitude and quiet of the Boerum house. He was eager, red — came clear to the hedge — looked at her with boyish lechery in his eyes.

And Helen, although almost choking with desire as she gazed upon the youth and knew what recollections and longings stirred in the stalwart frame and reddened the tanned face, fled suddenly to the house with a parting, nervous word. In her chamber she wrestled with her shame and her new born frenzy of desire for such a caress as she esteemed to be beyond the pale.

Wracked with a yearning which became a torment, she went to her window. She saw Frank seated once more in the shade of the, bushes — with a book upon his lap, a book which he was not reading. Constantly he gazed hungrily at her house, at the door within which she had disappeared.

The window was open. Clearing her throat nervously, Helen saw the youth glance quickly up towards her. She came fully from behind the side draperies then — looked about at sky and trees. Then she seemed to see him. She smiled — she waved a little kiss at him. He started to his feet, dropping the book on the grass.

He was standing — a glance of vacant disappointment on his face — as she turned away. She caught at her breasts in burning passion and longing. She had seen as the boy arouse not only the continued flush of his face but also the persistent swelling in his trousers — a swelling which revealed that the minutes of her absence had not subdued the excitement and the abnormal craving which had come upon him instantly when he saw her and realized that she was not angry at him.

"He's just a child — just a child — just a child," she kept repeating to herself like a drumbeat as she trembled there in seclusion. And then:

"It's no harm if he does see me bare — no harm — no harm — no more harm than a baby. A child may kiss — if he wishes to kiss — no harm!"

She was wild with volcanic passion. She shuddered as she dropped all her clothing. Touching a sex which throbbed, she cried out softly, hoarsely.

In the intensity of an intention hardly fully formed as yet, she even stripped off her shoes and hosiery. And she showed herself for a moment as a white shadow lurking in the draperies of her open window.

That shadow could not escape the eyes of Frank — who stood, still staring at the window from which there had been wafted at him a kiss — which might have been one of mere silent forgiveness for an outrage perpetrated two days earlier.

Rosy to the hair as she caught sight of him, Helen seemed not to see him. Advancing her shoulders and bust, she surveyed the weather once more as if anxiously. She heard a muffled exclamation from the adjoining yard as the boy caught sight of her young breasts and knew that she was naked — at least to the waist.

She cast upon him a startled glance — covered her tense, rosy little nipples with her hands shieldingly — made with her lips at him a formed but soundless "o-o-oh!" of self reproach for her thoughtlessness — and shook her head at him.

She retreated from the window. She flung herself upon her bed. She rolled there for a minute. She was panting, aching. Suddenly she abandoned the battle. She arose and, glancing from concealment, she saw that Frank had once more sunk doggedly upon the grass.

This time there was not even the pretence of reading — but he gazed steadfastly at the window of her second story, rear room.

Over her head she dropped a simple gown. On her bare, small feet she slipped sandals. And, with only these summary habiliments, she tiptoed down a rear flight and slipped from the back door and through an arbor.

The boy half started to his feet when he caught sight of the gliding figure of the lady upon whose white body he had exercised a certain violence in perpetrating so perverse an assault. But he sank back again when he noted that she seemed not to see him.

In the lower corner of her yard and bounded on the inner side of the Boerum hedge was a small copse of bushes with intervening patches of grass. To this Helen made her way. In her hand was a folded newspaper which she seemed to intend reading.

Before entering the seclusion of the bushes she looked wonderingly about. Meeting the eyes of Frank, fixed upon her from his own yard, she smiled at him faintly once more.

She disappeared from his ken. And whether or not the youth comprehended her willingness — nay, her ardent desire — that he should come to her as to a sort of silent assignation, he was wholly unable to prevent himself from a gradual descent upon the spot where she had vanished.

He crossed the hedge — and presently he found her. Looking up as she heard the rustling, she was lying upon her back with shoulders propped against one of the thicker trunked bushes. The sandals had been slipped off — as if for greater comfort. Her rosy toes curled in the long grass. She held in her hands the now outspread newspaper.

Frank stood poised a few yards away. It was clear that, despite her obvious forgiveness of his earlier transgression, the assurance which had animated him to dare what he had dared two days ago — when driven into a brazen desire by the vision of her bare loveliness — was lacking now.

With a rising flush the blonde young wife gave him a rosy smile which betrayed that at least his intrusion was pardoned — that, indeed, he was welcome to join her. If the boy — who still retained a vague shame over the manner in which he had been inspired to caress her and a fear that she might think it unworthy a "real man" — could have read the teeming mind and nerves of Helen Reed, he would have been vastly reassured.

For in the life of this lovely girl Frank assumed now an almost overweening importance — an importance quite out of proportion to his real merits it may be. He was the only one whom she knew who could bring her the repetition of sensations for which now she burned — the only one, perhaps, whom she would ever know who wished actively to use his mouth upon her body in this evil, lovely, shameful manner which he had revealed to her.

The vast and amazed perturbation with which she had found herself kissed and licked between the legs had been succeeded ultimately by erotic dreams of the somber joys she had known.

At times she could even feel that wet, red, flattened, velvety rasping tongue being drawn lasciviously along the furrow of her sex — and she had shivered many a time since as she recalled her shamed emotions — she had clenched her warm thighs and, with writhing loins, had sought a more vivid renewal of those sensations.

By the casual information of her mental paramour that such a lewd tongue could even enter her body and thereby multiply her thrilled and throbbing delights, the fearful anticipations of the girl had been wrought to such a pitch as practically to force her to bring this boy once more to her naked knees.

And now, as he was actually secluded with her and as she knew him to be actuated by that same perverse frenzy for her body, Helen had much ado to make the least pretence at concealment of her rabid eagerness to be treated as he liked in this respect.

She almost wished now, as she saw him still uncertain of expression and poise as he hovered above her, that he would be moved to a genuinely brutal treatment of her — that he would crush her downward with raised gown and plunge his mouth where he liked.

She saw that he feared — even after what had happened — to show, violently or otherwise, a lust for the repetition of an attack which her unspoken forgiveness had seemingly been designed to blot from the recollection of them both.

She would have to act — to lead him onward to the point of forgetting once more the deference due to a lady. And she had an inspiration — an inspiration blessedly due to the clear sunlight which streamed into their utterly concealed retreat.

She patted invitingly the turf to her side. The boy sat down gladly.

"I was going to take a sunbath, Frank," she murmured. "This is so quiet and sunny a spot — and where no one can possibly see from the outside."

"A sunbath?" he said, wide eyed.

"Yes. Such a bath is so healthy — prescribed frequently by physicians nowadays. Thousands lave their bodies in sunlight — when they are fortunate enough to possess a really retired and secluded place for the process."

"You mean — bare?"

"It is ineffective when clothing is worn."

"Shall I — go away?" he asked reluctantly — thinking to detect embarrassment and longing in her voice — which, indeed, were there though not from the cause he fancied.

"No indeed — why?"

"Well — I thought perhaps you wished solitude. I mustn't deprive you of your bath."

"I can get along without it for this once — though really I don't know that I need to do so — completely. This is a marvelous sun today. I've come prepared — as you see. I suppose you wondered at finding me bare footed and bare legged."

"I was glad," he said frankly. "Your legs and your feet are so pretty."

"Thank you — though really I suppose I should be ashamed."

"I have never had a sunbath — though I have heard of them of course," he said.

A sudden new inspiration came upon her. Her delicately licentious, embarrassed little plot was evolving.

"You should have them," she observed. "I've been thinking you a trifle languid of late. You would be surprised at how the sun, beating upon your body, can vitalize and stimulate it."

"I'd like it — if there was a place. But there is no fitting spot in our yard."

"This is ideal here for the purpose. Listen, Frank — six or seven feet over there is another open plot like this. To be sure, the bushes are so open that we should be ill concealed from each other — but we needn't look.

"You are old enough to know that if we sun bathe almost side by side, we mustn't ever speak of it to others — for they might think us very indecent — not understanding that we took precautions to safeguard propriety as far as possible. You could at least expose your torso over there — and I could give mine also to the sun."

"Let's — oh, let's, Mrs. Reed!"

"Well — I suppose we shouldn't — but — after all ..."

"Please!"

"Yes — we will. Go in over there, Frank. You must turn, you know — give back and stomach alternately to the rays."

"I will."

"And I can shield myself to some extent with this paper from where you will lie."

She saw his countenance fall somewhat — but, since she had been certain anyway that he would not miss the opportunity to spy upon the beauties just now dimly seen at her chamber window, she was not surprised.

In their respective coverts — very ineffectually hidden from each other — they prepared their upper bodies for the sunbath. Sitting, Helen unbuttoned her gown and, withdrawing her arms from the sleeves, pressed the lone garment downwards to her trim waist.

With surreptitious, flushed glance as she bared her bosom and abdomen, she noted the withdrawal of Frank's shirt and undershirt — all that he wore above the belt of his now loosened trousers. She saw the white, firm fleshed body of the boy — sturdy, fine and amazingly pleasant to gaze upon.

As she saw that now he was stealing a furtive glance towards her through the thin, inefficient veil of the scattered branches and leaves, she turned her flushed face aside and gave him for an instant the untrammelled vision of her round breasts and her white belly.

Then she slowly reclined backward until she was horizontal — with head raised somewhat against the trunk of the bush beneath which she lay. And now she disingenuously raised the paper, as a veil to her extended body, between them.

"Ah!" she said. "Comfort. Are you getting the rays right on your skin. Frank? Is your undershirt off?"

Having seen her glance once turned towards him, the boy well knew of her knowledge of his state of semi-nudity. He did not comment however.

"Yes," he answered. "But not much sun seems to come in here where I am."

And that fact Helen had known too.

"Bother!" she exclaimed. "When I so much wanted you to try the bath and see its effects! I tell you, Frank — you must share mine. I can raise the paper between us — and you can lie here."

She heard his rustling approach — saw again and nearer now his fine torso — heard him sigh and gasp softly as he caught glimpses of her bosom and navel.

With the paper erected as a feeble rampart guarding "the proprieties," they lay side by side.

"You are very white," she whispered — looking at him frankly now with turned head. "Except for your tanned face you are like milk. It's my first sunbath too — though they have often been recommended to me. We'll both brown up, I expect, like toast if we can have a few of these ..."

"Then you're not tanned either?" he said breathlessly. "May I see?"

"Why — perhaps it's no harm. Yes — see."

And she lowered the newspaper entirely.

The youth had a moment of silent, choking rapture as he was permitted now to gaze at leisure upon the rose-tipped breasts and gently heaving belly of the young woman.

"Oh — oh — how lovely you are!" he whispered at last.

Helen, already on fire, stared at the crotch of the boy — seeing there, just beneath the loosened band of the breeches, a prominence which magnetized her.

"There — that's enough," she murmured, raising the newspaper rampart once more.

They lay — both trembling — the boy avid in a wish which he still dared not express and Helen wild with the desire to attain what she dared not brazenly ask.

"Oh — there seems no reason why at least my legs should not have their share of the rays," she said suddenly.

"Let me!" he said eagerly and huskily. "Let me uncover them!"

"Can I trust you — not to go too far?" she inquired in a low voice. "This gown is all that I have on ..."

"Yes — yes!" he said quickly.

Already, he was kneeling at her feet — slowly raising upon her extended thighs the fabric which had hardly covered her rosily white knees at best. Holding the raised newspaper across her navel and thus shielding both face and upper body from his eyes, the girl interfered not at all with his occupation.

She shivered lightly as the air upon her body revealed to her that the excited youth had so far transgressed as to uncover to the light and to his eyes all her intimacies. She was covered now merely by a band of heaped muslin just below her navel.

Chapter XI

"May I just — rest my head on your legs — while I brown my back?" stammered Frank presently.

"I see no harm in that," Helen murmured. "But be careful not to raise my gown too high."

She felt his warm cheek on one thigh. She felt him draw downward over his head the skirt which he had so lavishly raised.

The girl choked as she felt his head turn and his lips press a soft hesitant kiss upon her upper thigh.

"I am so drowsy!" she complained — almost ferocious now over the timidity which seemed still to prevent the boy from assailing her as once he had done. "It is comfortable here in the sun. I shall take a nap perhaps."

Her fingers clenched upon the paper they held. Then, with closed eyes, she laid it to one side. Through half raised lashes she glimpsed the bulge in her skirt caused by his moving head.

As he felt the flaccidity of her affected sleep, the youth grew bolder. Kissing her thighs more and more hotly, he drew them gently apart. The soft columns yielded. His face slipped between them.

In soft flames of delight from the instant of his first kiss upon her slit, the girl fought to maintain her affectation of insensibility through fear of startling and checking him. But she need not have worried — for now she would have had to fight to force the excited lad to cease his inflamed and inflammatory caresses upon her rosy sex.

Nervously she twisted and drew up her knees as she felt his tongue emerge and lick the soft hair of her pussy voraciously. Brazenly the boy took her bare buttocks now with his hands. Kneeling now instead of lying between her widely parted legs, he ran that agitating tongue downward in all the vale between her thighs.

This he repeated again and again — and Helen, abandoning all pretense of drowsiness, moaned softly her shamed bliss.

As the masculine mouth glued itself now to the tender nook of her sex and the tongue, seeming of liquid fire to her exacerbated senses, ran upon the soft furrow, the girl's torso swayed and her out-flung arms thrashed the grass to either side.

Her updrawn legs began to thrash about in her rising physical delirium — and suddenly a small, naked foot touched the great protuberance at the fore of the loosened trousers of Frank.

She heard the boy gasp in the midst of his lecherous caresses as he felt the involuntary contact of that foot. She withdrew her toes hastily — then an instant later, she advanced furtively and this time deliberately the other nude foot towards the straining, lightly concealed virility of the grown boy.

Helen's breathing now was a series of sighs. And she trembled and gasped as she felt the boy's fingers take the lips of her lavishly caressed cleft — from which his mouth was withdrawn. Delicately he drew the tender, resilient borders somewhat apart — and the lady panted and exclaimed as his pointing, lustful tongue touched the wee opening and forced its way inward.

So Perry had been right! There was an even more marvelous manner in which this perverse tongue could make her shudder and writhe with ecstasy — and, even more wonderful, the boy either knew about this or was instinctively prompted to wish to enter her body with his tongue.

Under his crouching, bent body, her naked feet moved nervously. On her naked legs she felt the pressure of his bared torso — and was glad he had removed his upper garments — for it was pleasant, in the midst of her felicity, to feel his skin upon hers.

Suddenly the toes of one foot caught upon the loose and somewhat lowered waistband of the youth's trousers. The nether garment seemed to yield somewhat — to slip downward a trifle. Shaken from head to foot by the stirring of a lewd tongue upon her stiffened clitoris, the young wife advanced and raised the other foot.

It joined its mate — and the first foot wriggled its way within the loosened band of the breeches which Frank had partly unbuttoned when he removed his shirt and under-vest.

The girl's bare toes touched a virile nudity. Panting, she set both feet to work. The breeches glided down over the boy's hips.

From the partially opened drawers there protruded a swollen member. And upon this member, given over now to her lascivious mercy, her soft naked feet ran in delight.

It was, be it said, the first time that Helen had ever touched with any part of her anatomy — a fact which may appear strange in view of her wedded state — -the uncovered and rigid organ of a male.

Even now she could not see it because of the crouching attitude of the happy Frank — but she could apply her soft little toes questingly and caressingly to its flanks — she could roll the fascinating thing between her pink soles — and these things she did with a voluptuous pleasure which left no room for shame over her caprice.

With a hoarse cry of hesitant rapture, Frank raised his head now and withdrew it from its covert beneath her flimsy skirt. He gazed wildly downward at where his nude masculinity revelled in these oddly lecherous caresses. He glanced upward at the naked torso and closed eyes of the young woman.

And suddenly, with a husky cry, he tugged the muslin gown, which formed already so scant a protection, downward over her extended legs. Startled by this unexpected assault, Helen found herself as naked as the dawn.

Her furtive caresses checked by the withdrawal of her sole garment — -and her face a rosy mask of convulsed joy — she opened dazed eyes. She saw herself totally nude. She saw, too, the boy kneeling upright with his turgid member white and rosy in the sunlight.

And suddenly the frenzied Frank — stirred from his former sole preoccupation with a caress which he had been wont to practice upon the hairless, pink sex of his younger sister — his masculinity straining as the result of those soft feet playing upon it — was moved to a more normal lust.

Upward upon the bare legs of Helen he dragged his bare body. He tore open his drawers — and, with both breeches and drawers about his knees, he gave every evidence of a desire to ravish the lovely lady with more than just his tongue.

He was forcing apart once more the white thighs which Helen had hastily clenched as she comprehended at last the deviation which the youth proposed from the less dangerous devotion to her body which had so fixed her with ecstasy.

"No, no, no! Oh, my God — no!" she cried.

She was writhing as he contrived to part her legs once more and to kneel between them.

"Yes — oh, please — please let me do it! I never have — we shall both love it!" he wailed.

And he bent over her and — perhaps with the notion that thus he could excite her into yielding — he rubbed the round, hard bulb of his organ upon the sensitive borders of her cleft.

"I shall — c-call for h-help!" she panted as she found the strength with which he held her in place too much for her resistance.

The threat subdued him. He was too frantic to reason that she dared not summon others to a spot where they would find her naked in the arms of a nude and already matured boy.

"Please — please!" he stammered.

But the pressure with which he held her flattened under him relaxed. Helen knew that she had won her fight for her marital honor and integrity — yet that seemed for the instant a small triumph as compared with the disaster of not having won the infinite, complete felicity which she had been upon the verge of knowing beneath the action of that licentious tongue.

"You cannot — take me that way," she whispered feverishly. "But you may — you must — kiss me more — as you were doing...."

"Yes, yes!" he quavered. "But first will you let me see you — everywhere — all bare?"

"You are seeing me that way — you brazen boy!" "No — not everywhere — stand up!" he pleaded. "The bushes are so low — somebody may see...." "No one is about — please — just a moment!" And, standing but bending a trifle, the chaste Helen turned about — showing herself for the first time in all her exquisite nudity to a male.

Chapter XII

Her husky young idolater could not realize the full extent of the favor accorded him. If he was capable of thought at all at this moment, he undoubtedly believed that the white and shapely body now showing herself so freely to his exultant eyes must have been previously seen by the eyes of man — surely by the husband of Helen, perhaps by others.

For, though scarlet of face as she complaisantly allowed the youth to view and to touch her everywhere, the girl was so eager to feel his face again at her crotch that she gave him lavishly what he had demanded as a prerequisite to the resumption of his caresses.

Dragging himself on his knees about her, Frank fingered her from neck to toes, in front and behind. Then suddenly, with a little cry, he hugged her about the loins and buried his face in the darkly golden hair of her lower belly.

Instantly the soft thighs parted lavishly to his perverse approach. With hot kisses and lickings his mouth slipped downward. It fixed itself upon the throbbing borders of the rosy cleft once more.

Staggering upon her feet, the girl sank slowly to the turf. Not even the process of placing herself more amply and more comfortably at his disposal served to detach the tongue of the boy from her sex.

As she drooped he drooped with her, hugging her rump and hips. And Helen, again upon her back and hugging the cheeks of the youth with her silken thighs, crowded a fist to her lips to keep from crying out her guilty rapture as the stiffened tongue penetrated her slit and fixed itself at last upon the most sensitive point of her body.

Her delight arose to a delirium of ecstasy as the red tongue ceased to tap her clitoris gently and began to lick it softly. Her white legs ceased to hug the face of Frank. Trembling convulsively, they were cast to either side while his fingers clung to the thighs.

At last a slender foot probed lewdly beneath his body once again. Fathoming and welcoming the purpose of his sweet neighbor, the boy raised his nude body to allow the bare foot to find his rigid penis once more.

Already on the very verge of spending, Helen found her agitation so heightened by the lustful caresses which her toes and sole applied to the tempting column of the young virility that she shuddered and gasped suddenly in the throes of an emission that shook her with ecstasy throughout all her frame.

Eagerly Frank recovered with his softly working tongue every particle of the delicate moisture. And so excited was he by this additional proof of the delight of the blonde lady that his member throbbed violently — and the small toes which worked so libidinously upon the swollen cap of his sex felt the drenching outburst of the first issuing jet of his semen.

Instinctively heightening the bliss of the boy's ejaculation, those feminine toes continued to slip up and down on the palpitating rod until the last gush had fallen upon her calves and thighs.

Slowly the youth detached his mouth from the still quivering sex at last. There was anxiety in the gaze which he lifted from the delicate beauty upon which he had been feasting to the now pallid face of the woman who lay, trembling and with closed eyes, upon the greensward — for Frank feared that now there would come reproaches for the liquid outburst with which he had not been able to prevent himself from deluging the lovely legs.

As he still knelt between her calves, Helen at last let her lids flutter open. As she saw the strained attention of the boy — whom, indeed, her languor and pallor were beginning to alarm — she smiled at him faintly and reassuringly. Gradually color returned to her oval cheeks.

"Oh, my God — what have we done, Frank?" she whispered weakly.

"The loveliest thing in the world!" he said eagerly. "Did you — like it?"

"It was wonderful! Oh — I couldn't tell you!" breathed the woman dreamily. "I didn't know there was anything so marvelous in the world! What are you doing?"

"Just sponging off your legs with this handkerchief," murmured the boy. "I am sorry — but when you tickled me with your toes like that I couldn't help — coming. And I'm afraid it fell all over you."

"I didn't even know it," she commented. "It's no great matter — I shall bathe anyhow the minute I get into the house."

Swiftly re-arrayed now — a very speedy matter for Helen especially — they separated. The golden girl impulsively permitted Frank his first kiss upon her mouth — in a sort of shy gratitude. For, even though shyness may seem to have small place in the nature of either of the participants in so outrageous an outdoor performance, the fact is that the girl at least was now beginning to be overcome with shame over the matter in which her passions had led her astray.

This physical surrender — and her active participation in the boy's pleasure as well — left her, she was reasoning, no longer the physically immaculate spouse which she had prided herself on being.

As was to be expected, Perry drew from her, upon the first opportunity, a flushed but detailed narrative of her "downfall." He smiled with lascivious pleasure.

"An excellent soother of the nerves," he commented. "Yes — splendid for the cooling of hot blood. It will be nice for you to be able to summon this boy to that covert whenever you feel the need. In fact, I see no reason why you should not let him lie upon you — in the manner which he attempted at one time in your experience with him ..."

"You mean — -violate me — deflower me — never!" she cried.

"It would be — shall we say, difficult — to 'deflower' a lady who has been married a year," he said amusedly.

And then, more gravely as he saw the expression in her shamed face:

"Unless — great God, Helen — you don't mean!"

She bowed her head.

"So the old bird has never been able to make a woman of you!" he said wonderingly.

Chapter XIII

"Don't call him 'old bird' ..." protested Helen loyally. "In lots of ways he has been fine to me — fatherly ..."

"Fatherly, eh? Yes — more so than I had suspected evidently! Can you even begin to understand what an amazing thing this is that you tell me, Helen? That you — with your golden, rosy girlhood and charm — should have lived for a year with a man of only forty or so — a man who seems vigorous even if somewhat arid — and still be — unpolluted, as I suppose you would call it! It's beyond reason — beyond imagination! It excites me horribly!"

"Control yourself, Perry," she pleaded alarmedly — for, indeed, the man seemed on fire as she had never seen him even in the midst of their softly lascivious colloquies.

"Control myself — Great God! Ha — when I think of you — lying there by his side — you — the naked victim of futile fumblings!"

"Not naked," she stammered.

"Not naked? It's incredible — when he had every right over you! The whole thing is incredible! Are you sure you are not self deluded — that you have not dreamed you are still a virgin?

"Here — open your legs — let me at your soft little cunt — I must find out!"

"Perry — I shall scream — I shall certainly scream if you violate our compact — and touch me and look at me shamefully!"

"Drawers, eh?"

"Yes — this time I have them on — and am thankful it is so ..."

"There's a slit here at the side. Oh God — your skin!"

"Perry — you frighten me! Don't touch me — don't unbutton! Remember your pledges — you spoil it all — I shall never feel free to hold our conscience-searching chats again with you!"

"Christ — your little pussy!"

"You drive me wild! I warn you — all is over between us — our friendship — unless you take your hand out of my drawers instantly!"

"The boy — he saw and touched you everywhere! Why not I — since we are warm friends?"

"He — yes — but just a child — as you yourself told me. I had no idea of going with him anywhere near that far — and wouldn't even have begun if you hadn't urged it upon me. Never again — since I find even you unreliable — will I have anything to do with any male — with you — or Frank — with anybody!"

"He sucked this tender slit! Oh — I don't ask to see it, this delicious furrow — but only to slip my finger in a little — to find the membrane — to convince myself!"

The breath of Helen rattled in her straining throat. Held firmly by her skirt by the man's left hand, she was rigid but convulsed as her naked crotch underwent his fervent, obscene touches.

A finger ceased to glide distractingly upon the groove of her sex. It bent slightly — its tip pressed somewhat inward — the taut lips clung.

"Dear God!" she whispered. "You wish, then, that I should go quite mad! I cannot prevent you from inflicting upon me this humiliating research — but I swear to you that I shall never see or speak to you again unless you stop this instant!"

"You are cruel!" he said.

But the threat moved him sufficiently — since it was clear that the shaking girl was in earnest — so that he withdrew his brazen hand from within her intimate garment and shakily rebuttoned the drawers at the side.

"Cruel — perhaps — to both of us," she breathed almost inaudibly. And then:

"Thank you — for forbearing at last."

.With her tiny kerchief she sponged the brow of the man — where drops of perspiration stood. And she did not mind — possibly did not note — that the fingers of both his surrounding arms sank into her soft buttocks as she stood beside his chair.

"I could murder you!" he whispered.

"All right ..."

"With the stabbing of my dagger!"

"That — never!"

"I tell you you shall have it — some day! You shall love its strokes — ask for them ..."

"Never — oh — on how low a level you seek to place the friendship I have cherished. No man shall ever — do that to me!"

"Since your husband won't — or can't?"

"If you wish to put it that way ..."

"See what you are missing ..."

"Perry Allen — if you uncover that outrageous part of you — even a single inch of it ... !"

"You can stand the sight of just the head — as a sample — like this ..."

"Oh, my God — put it away — oh, oh — remember our compact! I can't — I won't — l-look!"

"You saw the boy quite naked — and didn't faint."

"Don't twit me — I was irresponsible — out of my head. And besides — a child ..."

"A child who wished to rape you — who attempted it — who, in fact, did rape you in a way."

"I know — I was wrong to accept your advice to — expose myself to him again. You have led me to do the most intolerable, Unspeakable things!"

"Where would my advice have been without that prurient, luscious desire to feel again his lips and tongue working between your lovely legs?"

"I must admit that — yet I should never have known how such an incredible thing felt if you had not originally led me to the naughtiness of showing him things which I shouldn't."

"He will lick you frequently now — drink your sweet emission ..."

"Never — again!" she sighed.

"You revelled in the entrance and the activity of his tongue ..."

"I almost died — it was sheer rapture! But that morbid curiosity of mine will have no aftermath."

"To think that it was the dew of a virgin that he sipped! I could — by God — take up his odd lechery myself — feast on you in the same way!"

"Don't talk horrors — a full grown man like you too!"

"To think that you are still a maiden — you blonde witch! But — not for long — I promise you!"

"For as long as this body lasts — and you mustn't talk like that, Perry."

"Why not? We decided that we could talk to each other as freely as we wished — on any topic."

"Well — but you've already dealt such fearful blows to an alliance which was an indiscreet one from the first, as I see now..."

"It's unimpaired — isn't it?"

"If you wish — and if you can manage to be good in everything but words. But about this maidenhood which appears to intrigue and amaze you so much. While I retain it I can at least have the consciousness of keeping the marital citadel intact. I have yielded to a terrible temptation. I am ashamed and bewildered still. But I am not a faithless wife — am I?"

He gave her a smiling, silent — somewhat uncandid — negative as he saw her earnestness and her simplicity.

"It does not particularly weigh on me — this virginity," she went on in a low voice. "I am not conscious of — missing anything worth while through its possession ..."

"Ha!" he said softly. "When your rich blood boils — which is frequently, sweet lady — it is partly with wrath over the maintenance of this obstruction to a thousand joys which you should know.

"I have always thought you virginal in expression — but that you should actually prove to be what you appear passes understanding. In order to clear away the fog surrounding the point, suppose you tell me about your wedding night."

"Lord — I was as nervous as a witch — and then — nothing much happened," she whispered, flushing deeply.

"Nothing much? You slept with him ...?"

"Yes — we don't often do that now ..."

"What did your bridegroom seem to wish — -to see you all naked?"

"No — and he never has. We wore night clothing — both of us."

"Don't make me drag this out of you, Helen. Speak out as frankly as we have agreed to do with each other. I want to know all about that night — other experiences with the man, too, provided sexual episodes have varied."

"I am going to suffer, Perry — and yet what you ask me to tell you will perhaps appear to you merely silly. But it has been a sort of queer, buried shame. You can have no idea how hard it is to drag it out into the light before even your eyes. It is — just childish — very difficult for a wife to speak of."

"Let me judge. You pledged complete confidences on any topic, you know."

"Yes — I did — and you have shaken me to the core with some of your demands for information!"

"All right, dear — it is sometimes nice to be shaken to the core — isn't it? Acknowledge the fact."

"Well — I've never been able to hide my agitation from you when it arose. But this time — I'm afraid you will just laugh."

"Madam, I assure you that I shall very promptly feel of this soft belly and this plump behind right on the skin — unless you go ahead and tell me what I want!"

"Monster! Well — there I lay beside him in the dark. I was in a kind of panic — quite without desire for the physical phenomenon which I expected to occur. My nightgown reached to my ankles. Daniel had come in to me from another room where he had undressed. I had seen him briefly in bathrobe and then in pajamas. Then-lights out — and a form at my side.

"And this practical man of affairs appeared converted now into something quite unrecognizable. He seemed to wish to consider himself — and to be considered — as a nurse, a mother, a father — how can I tell — it all seems perfectly crazy as well as humiliating when I try to put it into words!"

"Just tell it quite simply, Helen."

"You will not laugh?"

"I am far from disposed to mirth. Whatever unusual obsession pervades the sensuality of an individual — and I am beginning to feel that you have been the victim of an odd if innocent one — is no more likely to arouse mirth in me than it would in Havelock Ellis."

"Well — the first thing I knew he was murmuring the most amazing things. He said I was getting to be a big girl now — that I must be looked after — that he would attend to my needs carefully. I lay there — absolutely silent — and with not even the faintest comprehension of what he was driving at.

"Then — I felt his hand. It wandered — but very lightly and appraisingly — upon my body. The fingers trembled on my bare arm and neck and chest. They did not seek to penetrate my thin garment — but they went on to touch my breasts. They were cupped in turn over each breast.

"I heard him whisper: 'Yes — a big girl now — who needs guidance — at her time of life — she shall have it — physical and otherwise.'

"You will comprehend the bewilderment which arose amid a peculiar new shame. I was still in the expectation that very soon now he would wish to lie upon me — in the way of which my chagrined mother had warned me with injunctions towards compliance — an unnecessary warning, since I knew the theory of sexual intercourse already.

"My mother had put it that 'Mr. Reed must be humored.' Very well — I was humoring him. But he was making me more and more nervous every moment — feeling delicately of me everywhere through my nighty — seeming to wish to savor the warmth of me through the gauzy tissue and to apprise himself of every unseen contour.

"Thus his fingers overran my stomach and thighs. And at last they fixed themselves most dismayingly. They took cognizance of my genital mound — of the beard — and then, softly forcing themselves between my clenched thighs as I lay, face upward, staring into the darkness and shivering with an odd shame which already half apprised me that I was in presence of some abnormality, their tips learned, through my gown, of my most intimate conformation."

"Your slit!" breathed the man.

"He touched it — felt it throughout — tweaked the lips lightly," faltered Helen. "He kept whispering the most extraordinary things — seeming to be in a kind of dream. He said these evidences of girlish growth and development must not alarm me — that they would be explained and attended to. He called me 'little girl' and 'child.'

"I could not even reply or comment. I was speechless, motionless. I understand now — knowing him better — that he wished it so. For my silence and submission gave him the opportunity to sink unhampered into that incredible dream of his.

"Still I thought — in my ignorance — that he was trying perhaps to spare me the abruptness of an immediate approach — trying to lead up to the conjugal violation and to 'acclimatize' me to it by these strange, prolonged fingerings through my nighty. In despair of understanding his meandering comments, I tried to banish them from my ears as well as my mind ..."

"He was trying to think of you as a child bride?" asked Perry gravely and intently.

"No — not as a bride at all — perhaps because a bride might expect — the male approach," she said ashamedly. "As a young girl — attaining puberty and mystified by it — a young girl without protection against a lasciviously tender nurse or unnatural parent — that was what his morbid imaginings, of God knows how long duration, wished to picture me.

"And I think he was inflamed with delight that I seemed to accept with such silent docility the amazing role which his words made more and more clear ..."

"I'll be damned!" said the man simply.

"Of course my actual ignorance of more than the technique of what I supposed he would presently do to me gave him insuperable advantage in establishing our relations from the very start," faltered Helen.

"I had no knowledge of more than the quite untempting — indeed, appalling — probability that soon he would wish to — cohabit — with me. And in all that he did, recall that I was on pins and needles with the notion that at any minute I should feel him upon me — disarranging our clothing — bringing our bodies together.

"And I was actually relieved — although positively racked with shame — when at last I comprehended that I was not to suffer at least this infliction.

"With hand resting quietly upon my abdomen, he began at length to fondle my bare feet and calves with his feet. 'Growing well — nice smooth calves — will be fine, womanly legs — ' I heard his husky whisper. 'Must be careful now — longer gowns for the growing girl — can't have strange men looking too eagerly — '

"My head was whirling with the mystery and embarrassment of his somber libidinousness. I felt his hand, resting on my stomach, tug the nightgown slowly upward with tiny jerks. With my legs bared from ankles to mid thigh, his other hand entered into confusing play. Directly upon the skin he fondled and felt now my knees and thighs.

"I was in a quiver of apprehension. I thought him likely at any instant to take gropingly with his hand the intimacies which lay so helplessly open to it.

"But he did not do so. Feeling my thighs everywhere, almost to their summits, he interjected more of those husky comments — comments which were beginning to reveal to me faintly my own unbelievable and designated status in his visions.

" 'Thighs become fuller at this period of life — 'he was whispering. 'Yours — like satin — warm — lovely. We must keep them that way with longer drawers perhaps — drawers which will not let the men see too much when you frolic about.

" 'Open drawers? Well — maybe — though dangerous when you happen to cross your legs in a public conveyance with some man sitting opposite. Now — mustn't be nervous — we must look after what has mystified and disturbed the little lady.'

"And his right hand, Perry, arose from my belly. While his left hand remained, inactive now, upon my naked legs, his other fingers probed slowly and gently the depths of my nightgown at the bosom.

" 'Ah — ah — ah!' he groaned softly as he touched my nude breasts. 'Sweet — sweet — developed quickly.'

"I trembled with nervousness and shame as he took each bare breast in an alternate cupping of his fingers.

" 'Lovely!' he groaned softly. "Ah — ah — dainty child — mustn't be startled if little tips arise sometimes — even ache gently. That will all be explained to you — after a bit. And now — this other development of which you have timidly complained — '

"I heard his teeth grate as his right hand slipped down from my bosom beneath the loose necked night-robe. His fingers smoothed my bare stomach as they passed.

" 'Oh, oh!' he sighed. "Can it be — yes — hair — fine, tender, curling hair! Mustn't be ashamed, dear — you must be looked after. Yes — hair — curls — where you were bald and rosy and white! Ah — oh — it means you are ripe, child — yes — could bear a child — could be entered here — '

"I jumped, I suppose, as he took my bare sex with fingers that quivered upon it. He cooed delightedly at my evidence of agitation.

" 'Too bad to excite precious baby!' he muttered.

" 'But she must learn the facts of life — for her own protection. See — now — you are sensitive here as never before. Even a fingertip can — '

"I writhed in a shame so dire — as a single finger caressed and then gently bored — that I could not say even now whether my fearful excitement had in it anything of pleasure. But I did thrill — horribly — as that finger touched my clitoris — and my jump and writhing and hoarse, shamed murmur seemed to enrapture him.

" 'Ah — little girl — big girl now — ' he whispered. 'Lift a little, child — '

"His left hand, still upon my thighs, appeared to be trying to bore directly upward beneath me. Dazedly and involuntarily I raised my bottom somewhat. Promptly he took advantage of the movement — and I found my naked rear resting upon his left palm and fingers while his right hand worked havoc from above between my legs.

"His fingers squeezed my buttocks — his finger above — oh — it was — beyond words, Perry!"

"Lord God — what a substitute for a normal wedding night!" muttered the man.

"I was — not sane — that's all there is to it! You will comprehend that when I tell you the rest ..."

"Tell on ..."

Chapter XIV

"Of course I knew by this time that his whisperings were just the vapourings of some strange, licentious unreality which he had convinced himself — with the aid of my silence and ignorant submission — to be real. But I was frantic, Perry — it was the first time I had been touched in these regions since babyhood."

"I understand — you were past any genuine ability to resist his queer whims even if you had known what he was and was not entitled to do to his bride."

"Yes. And he whispered eulogies of my bottom as he softly squeezed the flesh again and again.

" 'Fine, great behind — not little any more — ' he quavered. 'And in front here — dear little cunnie!' Excuse the word he used, Perry."

"Be explicit, Helen — I like that."

"'Dear little cunnie — ' he whispered. 'It must be touched like this to warn it against worse things than a finger — things that could do eternal damage. See — must learn on daddy, dear — '

"And, withdrawing his left hand from beneath me — where it had so actively and shamelessly assisted the upper hand in playing havoc with my untutored nerves — he caught at my own left hand. Surprised, I resisted not at all — and I found my fingers upon a naked, strutting something ..."

"Ha — he can have an erection then!" remarked the man.

"Yes — I think always it is an ineffectual one — as far as penetration goes," she murmured flushedly.

"Did you handle him?"

"I jerked away my hand — in a sort of shocked and nervous horror — as soon as the identity of what I touched penetrated my dazed consciousness. I think he was delighted with my very timidity — which he construed easily into just a childish embarrassment and ignorance.

" 'Little girls have to learn —' he muttered. 'Take it in your fingers, dear — so that you may find out exactly what is the object which you must never allow near this tiny, tender pit here — "

"And, while a finger caressed my clitoris and shot through my nerves waves of heat that shook me, he returned my hand to his swollen affair. And this time, Perry — oh — remember please that I had been told to 'humor' him and that I had no real idea of what I ought or ought not to permit — this time I let him direct my fingers so that they ran up and down upon his stiff member.

"He groaned softly with pleasure. His finger in front continued to — to ..."

"To frig you," interjected the pleased Perry.

"To — frig — oh what a word! I have never heard it before ..."

"It's the correct one ..."

"All right — he frigged me — oh — shamefully, wonderfully — while I handled him so submissively. I was just one trembling glow from head to foot, Perry. Even his arm, which ran down into my nighty from above and rested upon or between my breasts as his hand occupied itself so indecently, added to my more and more outrageous sensations."

"Oh — outrageous?"

"Well — terrible — vastly shaming. And especially so because I was beginning to recognize dimly that there was something unnatural in these 'marital' indulgences to which he was submitting me. You see — while fingering me so odiously — he kept warning me — and the part he touched upon my body — against the instrument which he had brought me to caress upon his own form.

"And yet — well — I knew that the normal relations of husband and wife called for the yoking of those two regions.

"So, you see, I had a sort of inward monitor admonishing me that this old Mend of my parents — now my own legal husband — was deviating in shameful ways from what a bride had reason to expect — and to fear — from him.

"By this time, though, I was beyond the rule of reason — I was in a fury of raging excitement and thrilling shame combined. He had upon his side in deluding me into complaisance towards dreams which he had doubtless cherished for long concerning me — or perhaps some other young girl at times.

"For one thing, despite my college education and wide reading in certain lines, I was pretty ignorant concerning things of a carnal nature. For another thing, though this man had no least physical attractiveness for me, he had the advantage of a certain avuncular authority and prestige brought about by his friendship with my parents and by the fact that he had held me in his lap as a child.

"And petted you — brought you gifts?"

"The latter, yes — little ones. The former — no — or very lightly if at all. I think he had not dared — for now I know that he would much have relished fondling me — especially as I reached puberty. But I did remember — on this, my wedding night — occasional touches on my legs and body over my clothing which had awed and confused me at the time.

"And — this was a third advantage he possessed in carrying out his queer, corrupting little campaign — I think I fell hypnotisedly now into something like the mental, as well as physical, attitude which he wished.

"He wanted a confused, excited child by his side — who might be led into accepting his own standards of what constituted fleshly joys. Well — he had such a child now-even though she was then nearly twenty-two years of age and well provided with all the sexual maturities which he liked to pretend to have just come bewilderingly upon her.

"For with that finger buried to a knuckle within me, Perry — and with my own fingers so lasciviously engaged by his wish — I fell into almost a syncope of flaccid, sensual willingness to be just the perversely instructed child (hat he appeared to picture me.

"As the lips of my sheath clung to his fingertip, I gave a sudden gasp and rubbed the rod I held more furiously. He noted, of course, that I was on the verge of a spasm from the action of that 'enlightening' finger of his.

" 'No, no — naughty, naughty!' he soothed, withdrawing his hand hurriedly. 'Little girl must just learn — not be bad — '

"I felt his instrument throb in my hand — and he hastily disconnected this lecherous contact too.

" 'Now you know how daddy is — ' he whispered."

"Daddy, eh? He pictured the incest?" observed Perry.

"Sometimes, no doubt. But — as I have told you — the man was sometimes nurse, sometimes mother, sometimes father — anyone who could be in a position of authority over a young girl and could take advantage of that position to mold her to his odd dreams of perverse pleasure.

"He gave me now a couple of minutes to recover poise and breath — for I had been panting and wriggling — on the very verge of an emission. And then — well — beneath the coverlets he was all over me, Perry!

"Weak and flaccid as I was, he rolled me softly and felt of me from toes to neck. He quavered a series of 'justifying' explanations — said he must find out whether I was developing properly in every way during these crucial months.

"He had my nighty rolled about my neck. My whole body writhed and my pulses throbbed under his avalanche of soft, lingering researches.

"Suddenly he disappeared beneath the bedclothes. For a moment I resisted as I knew his head in presence of my total nakedness and felt his torrid breath here and there upon my body ..."

"Ah — a tendency like that of Frank?" breathed Perry curiously.

"No — I was just the small, soft puppet of a girl, you see — to be enlightened — and, under that pretext, to be fondled, examined digitally."

"Not ocularly?"

"He has wished that many times since — but has never succeeded in persuading me to be naked in the light for him to examine. You see — I think he postponed, gourmet like, some of the gratifications which he had in mind to obtain from me gradually on later occasions.

"At that time — yes — he could have had me from the bed and nude upon the rug if he had liked. For I was too agitated and confused and too thrilled to resist.

"But I had a day or so afterwards to think it all over — to realize, even if vaguely, what sort of a harmless maniac I had wedded. And, armed with knowledge of his ways which he could never afford to have known to my parents or to any other person, it has been I who have assumed a sort of mastery regarding limitations when I humor him."

"Ah — you humor him?"

"He is my husband — there is no one else to give him the least — pleasure."

"Quite right. And so?"

"He rested his cheek on me here and there — stomach, thighs, bottom — while he fondled me so completely. I had at first the fear that he would cast aside the coverings and see me nude. But he made no such effort — though he ran face as well as fingers over my quivering body at last.

"And all the time I could hear his muffled voice as I twisted and turned in response to his attempts to get me into this posture or that. He kept heaping husky eulogies upon all that he touched.

"His head returned to the pillow at length — and he lay motionless, breathing hard. I was shivering, of course, with agitation and shame. Presently he gasped and panted. He rolled mystifyingly in the bed.

"Then he seemed exhausted. In the dim night light I saw his hand emerge from under the clothes. He tossed aside a crumpled kerchief."

"The wretch — with a lovely girl lying beside him!" cried Perry indignantly.

"In a way he couldn't help it perhaps," Helen faintly defended. "He is — I think I told you — incapable of the — penetration ..."

"Oh — I have no objection to his having left you a maiden," he told her smilingly. "Though I assure you it is not for long ..."

"It is for as long as life — " she said. "Don't joke about such a thing as that, Perry."

He smiled.

"Go on," he adjured. "What else about this extraordinary and unfortunate husband?"

"Oh — unfortunate!" she murmured. "I think he would disclaim that adjective. "I — I have reason to think that he considers himself happy enough ..."

"Ah — his mania persists — and is humored?"

Helen flushed deeply under his eyes.

"There is a certain duty, after all, to do what one's husband wants," she said.

"And he wants ... ? I know that you seldom if ever sleep together."

"No — practically never. But he loves to treat me like a young, innocent, ignorant girl at times — a girl whose guardian or nurse or parent he is — and to 'take advantage' of my helplessness. He draws me to his lap — fully clad — when the mood overcomes him. I allow him to coo endearments — and reassurances addressed to this imaginary lass in her teens.

"His hands begin to overrun me. I put my head shyly on his shoulder and hide my face as he begins to explore my legs beneath my clothing. If he finds me bare to his approach he is delighted. If he finds drawers he is perhaps even more pleased — and he makes a prolonged and licentious ceremony of entering them at the waistband or at the side — and then detaching them so that his caresses of my intimacies may be more ample.

"Finally the garment comes off completely. My blushes, I can assure you, are very real — for by that time, what with his fingerings and his whisperings that the 'little girl must be examined and tested to see whether she is almost a woman,' I can't help being terribly inflamed. Of course I know that what he does to me then is odious ..."

"But I haven't heard yet of his doing anything whatever to you — anything that counts," said Perry.

"He fingers me," she stammered. "Fingers me until I spend — when he gets me this way ..."

"The old devil — not so old, though, that he shouldn't have something better for you than that!"

"It delights him so — to watch my face as I spend and writhe upon his lap ..."

"God, what a married pair!"

"I hadn't the heart to refuse even from the start — when I discovered how it enraptured him. And now ..."

"Now you love it?"

"Now I — oh — I am almost genuinely the child in her teens whom he pictures — -piling eagerly and ardently into his lap for 'a treat' Indeed, Perry — heaven knows I never expected to speak of these things — but indeed I hardly think I could have gotten through this past year without these unnatural reliefs for my nerves.

"I must have been always very passionate — as you have told me — yet I was relieved, too, to discover that I was not to have to submit to deflowering. But — that finger of his awakened me to a sexual delirium from the very start of our wedded life together."

"What does he get out of it — aside from the pleasure of feeling you and watching you spend?"

"He never actually sees me spend — he is not allowed to see my body."

"Well — he sees the effect upon you — your expression and contortions."

"Yes — he loves that! And he loves to feel my bottom squirm upon his — thing. Sometimes — when I am particularly excited — I offer no objections if he bares himself in front and lifts my skirt behind — so that I sit, bare bottomed, right on his — his ..."

"Prick — tool!"

"Perry! I was going to say — member. Then — when he slips that hand between my naked legs — I writhe hotly upon his organ. Sometimes he — spends even before I do — under this added aggravation...."

Chapter XV

"Well," observed Perry, with a long drawn breath, "all I can say is that he seems to have succeeded in his remarkable scheme to this extent: That he has made of his young and lovely wife a half innocent, half perverse schoolgirl — a mature and beautiful child with the face of a blonde angel, who submits, with clinging arms and flushed features, to being masturbated!"

"Oh!" wailed the girl. "Don't say that, Perry!"

"What can I say? Isn't it the fact?"

"But it sounds so — so crude and horrid — when you use that language!"

"I know it does — but you haven't faced the facts of his degeneracy — a degeneracy which has already more or less involved you in its meshes. For you love it, don't you — when he draws you upon his lap and ... ?"

"Don't repeat it!" she pleaded with a tiny shiver.

"Don't you love it?"

She pondered, seeking veracious excuses.

"I have learned to love it — yes," she whispered at length. "But it has seemed to me such a small thing as compared with what I know a husband to be entitled to demand of his bride that I have felt the least I could do was to humor him in this whim which sits so close to his heart.

"And it was necessary, too, in order to keep peace in the family fold. I have been able — by permitting or refusing this uncanny favor — to govern him in a way — to keep him burningly fond of me — even to make him spend such sums as I find needful ..."

"There's something else that's queer about it. A person would think that a year of such unnatural caresses would leave traces in and upon your superb body — on your features too. Yet you keep that expression of an almost unawakened girlishness which I noted upon you when first I saw you.

"You are healthy, alert — no signs of languor except the wee languor which comes upon you when your ready passions begin to speak softly. You flush at the slightest provocation — your modesty is quite unblighted, even though, as when you were with Frank, it may be swept away in a turbulence of desire."

"Heavens — you flatter and shame me at the same time," said Helen — in a faintly smiling attempt to dam this flood of personal comment. "What is this — a psychoanalysis — a foiling for complexes?"

"It is the startled but gratified arrival at the conclusion that months of such lascivious attentions as might well have sent even a robust girl to bed as an occasional invalid haven't done you any apparent harm."

"These things are — dangerous then?" she asked, wide eyed.

"Of course, Helen — dangerous, the experts say, chiefly because there is no real mingling of the mysterious sexual fluids, the nervous essences, in such peculiar digital abuses. How often does he take you in this way?"

"Oh — perhaps weekly — on the average."

"Ha — well, naturally, that explains it. That could not harm you — but only keep you in the excitable state which I noted in you in the store — and many a time since. I had the idea that perhaps he violated you thus pleasantly at least once or twice a day."

"Oh — never — though he might have ..."

"You mean you would have been defenseless — because you found it so enjoyable?"

She nodded, turning rosier.

"Well — " observed Perry reluctantly. "I have got to give the man one good mark then. Knowing better than you how debilitating such treatment might be, he has deliberately refrained from making it so frequent as to injure you. And another thing is now accounted for. When I touched your warm bare crotch ..."

"Perry — I beg of you — don't speak of that!"

"I found," he went on smilingly, "quite the daintiest, firmest little groove — one which I should have surmised to be virginal if I had had even a fragment of my wits about me. If your husband was constantly pawing you there a muscular laxity would be almost certain to ensue — but I do remember thinking at the time that you had the tautest, most exquisite ... !"

"Perry — I shall run away!"

He cast a restraining arm about her as the flushed lady started from her seat at his side on the sofa.

"Tell me," he said maliciously. "Is there any noticeable change in the appearance of your delicate slit — as the outcome of these unusual marital relations?"

"You are horrid! No — at least — how do I know? I don't go about looking at myself there!"

"I can understand that. In fact, if you went about doing that, I should say you would attract some attention. If you can't tell me you can at least show me. I may be able, inexperienced though I am, to detect any inflammation.

"Perry — oh, my God — don't lift my clothes — don't break your pledge to respect me physically!"

"The pledge doesn't bind if you ask me, you know," he said, toying mischievously with the border of her skirt "Perhaps you will ask me now to look at your naked private parts — so that I may decide whether you have been injured in the least by ..."

"No, no — oh — haven't I been wicked enough already!"

"Perhaps — but, if so, you haven't told me about it yet. I am not your most favored friend, it appears — but the youth next door holds that preeminence. Must I ask Frank what he noted in regarding so closely the lips of your rosy sex?"

"No — oh, for God's sake — that child!"

"A 'child' who lifted you to heaven on the tip of his tongue. He's your real lover — more than Daniel Reed or I or anyone else."

"Don't say that — I have no lover — I never shall have one — it's a horrid word!"

"Almost every male who sees you is your lover — in one sense of the word. But I'm only teasing, dear — so calm down. I want a little more exclusive information — about your marital deliriums."

"I've told you — he — takes me on his lap."

"In the daytime or evening — yes — but at night?"

"Very rarely he enters my bed — but occasionally my chamber — when we are both in night clothes."

"And what is his caprice then?"

"It varies — but always there is that dominant idea of the adolescent girl, examined, reassured — and enlightened. He is a tutor, a guardian, a nurse, a parent or some other close relative. I humor his notions in everything — save in the matter of complete exposure under his eyes.

"I even reply as he wishes — calling him 'guardy' or 'nurse' or whatever he seems to wish to be. I told you you would laugh ..."

"I'm not laughing — I see a little way into his queer lechery."

"I've reached the stage of standing in my nighty and letting him explore everywhere beneath it — and he likes to hear me whisper shamed remonstrances — and say perhaps: 'Oh, daddy — don't — must you learn about me like this?' Or else:

"'Nurse — please — my health is all right — you don't need to run your hands about on me like that.' And sometimes: 'Doctor — must you touch me there — where the hair has come? It makes me feel — oh — I can't tell you!' And he always answers me with soft, reassuring whispers."

"And then?"

"Then I give way entirely — in a shamed pleasure which I can't combat. I find myself perhaps straddling his knees with back towards him. He will fumble at his pajamas. My night-robe will be softly raised in the rear. I am drawn backward against him — and I find my nude behind snuggled to his sexual nakedness — which is perhaps not yet fully awakened.

"Then the 'examination' localizes itself. With hands under my nightgown in front, he plays — oh, deliciously — with my — nook. He never fails to arouse me to a trembling, sighing rapture. I writhe on his bare thing — it hardens — oh — oh!"

"Try it with me — since you love it so much."

"Never — you are not my husband — and I have no duty towards you which would excuse it!"

"All right, Miss Stingy — there'll come a day!"

"No, no!"

"Cling to the belief as long as you can. And what happens then in your sensual Odyssey?"

"You know — he — fingers me off. I go positively mad — for there has always been this interval of days of abstinence to make my blood ready to boil. But sometimes — when I emerge from my delirium — I find that all my bare thighs are resting on his, that my nighty has got up to my neck in the rear and that all my back is squeezed to his naked belly and chest ..."

"Try to believe that he doesn't see then at least all your bare rear charms!"

"I suppose he does — I'm too excited to know — or care, I'm afraid. But he has learned that he must at least keep my nighty reasonably lowered in front. Usually he — comes — on my wriggling bottom as he makes me spend.

"Then — for I am really too weak to attend to myself by that time — I stand and let him wash my buttocks."

"Not your little pussy?"

"Yes — that too — but under the nightgown — without looking at it."

"You let him see your bottom?"

"Yes — I kicked a lot at first — but he seems to love it so! I hold my nightdress just above it — and he — cleanses it carefully."

"Kisses it?"

"How mean! You want to know everything! All right — yes — yes,-he does, and it gets me so overwrought that I would gladly submit to being drawn upon his lap for more of that pernicious fondling. But there is never a repetition of those fearful thrills."

"Once in a while you let him sleep with you, you just said?"

"Yes — possibly once a month. That is a grand occasion for him. I allow him to draw off my nighty after we are under the coverlets — and to dispense with his pajamas also. He likes to be my naked male nurse then — or perhaps a sort of hybrid — female as well as male. For — if you laugh I'll pinch you, Perry! — he gives me his nipples to suck."

"I'll be damned! You do it?"

"He loves it so — he fairly trembles — -and his — his object ..."

"His prick — his cock ..."

"Try to be halfway decent in your language, Perry, even if you can't in mind. His — thing — gets quite hard and long against my stomach as I slip down to take a nipple between my lips.

"You know — there's something horribly fascinating about accepting the infantile or girlish role to which his inflamed fancy assigns me. I seem to feel with his own morbid imaginings — to be the shamed, curious schoolgirl consenting to touch and feel his virility in order to learn what a man is like — to be the child in her early teens embarrassedly allowing guardian or father to acquaint his fingers with the evidences of her puberty ..."

"But this uncanny fascination simply arises from the fact that you are kept sexually half starved. And it is that fact, too, I have no doubt, that made you such a helpless prey of the libidinous fingers of those men — including your servitor — in the store. And the same thing accounts in part for your somber pleasure in acting as you did with Frank — and for the rapture you knew under his attacks."

"You make me feel like a subject undergoing vivisection. All right — I'm very passionate then."

"Don't be ashamed of that, for heaven's sake!"

"I don't think I am particularly ashamed of it — -though perhaps I should be. I think I hardly realized that I was so until you brought me to understand it. But I do see now that the queer connubial life I have lived has probably served to keep my senses stirred without ever fully satisfying them."

"Something shall be done about that. You can never be 'fully satisfied' as long as you remain a wedded maiden."

"I can even smile now under your grumbling threats — though they used to horrify and scare me. But now I know you are not dangerous — and I shall never become overwrought enough to let a man — stab me ..."

"No?" he said softly. "There are no imaginable circumstances under which you would yield — short of actual violence?"

"Certainly not!"

"Then perhaps the favored man will have to be he who is unprincipled enough to apply violence."

"There is no such — who will ever get a chance at me in seclusion."

"I saw a girl once," he said, reflectively, "a girl of quite good rearing and of some personal charm — but who was silly enough to have declared, at the age of nineteen, her intention of entering a convent as a novice.

"I myself — in company with a good hearted but infuriated blackguard who wished her — either as wife or as less lawful mate — heard her declare this intention of perpetual virginity and of repulse of his wooing. And less than an hour later I saw her writhe on the floor to catch him by the ankles and huskily implore him to take her — and that, in words so crude that it is improbable they can ever have passed her lips before."

"Great God!" cried Helen. "There must have been a fearful violence used upon her to bring her to that state of surrender."

"Oh — she meant her pleas — and sobbed with joy when they were granted. To be sure there had been a certain violence employed earlier with her — and this man Bill could have had her by this means in the quarters in which we then were. But he wanted her consent — not so much from squeamishness as from a stubborn pride."

"For heaven's sake how was she brought so low as to plead for her defilement?"

"It will not sound very pretty to you ..."

"I wish to learn it."

"Her repulsed and irate wooer stripped her to the skin."

"You were there?"

"Yes — in fact, he was — he was, er — a sort of employee of mine. There are people with these little lacks in punctiliousness of behavior ..."

"You could have restrained him?"

"I might — but, foreseeing a satisfactory denouement on the way, preferred to remain neutral. Valuable confed— I mean, valuable employees must be humored at times."

"You must have had some terrible associates!"

"They have not all been gentlemen and ladies."

"And yet — you yourself have — culture, poise ..."

"I have had certain advantages — sadly wasted, I fear. But — regarding this young Mary ..."

"I'll bet you helped undress the poor girl."

"I may have been of some slight assistance. She was a handful even for the determined and husky Bill. It was a pleasant task — she was nice to see when she was naked — far too nice in every respect to become a nun. She could tell you today how glad she is to have been saved from that fate in spite of herself ..."

"You can be — terrible — in spite of your breeding, I believe. You mean he — wanted to marry this girl?"

"Very much — ox, failing that, at least a domesticity together."

"Yet he was willing that you should see her unclad — should even help him strip her?"

"In certain circles a distinct informality prevails regarding what they are wont to consider small and unimportant matters."

"Small — unimportant! Did he beat her?"

"I believe he had to buffet her a trifle in order to cause her to assent more quietly to the test which he had in mind."

"The test — what test?"

"We were in a small apartment house in a retired section of upper Manhattan. In the band — er — I mean among the persons right at hand whom Bill knew intimately was a somewhat strange family — a mother and three children — none of them what you might call well reared. They had the little apartment adjoining the one to which Bill had brought Mary for their chat. You are sure you wish to hear what happened?"

"By all means — you can't stop now ..."

"Well — I am sorry to have to say that Bill ran his naked and recalcitrant — but now subdued — inamorata down the hall by the nape of her neck to this other apartment where dwelt the Reilleys — mother, two half grown sons and a daughter the age of Mary herself ..."

"Naked — in an apartment house corridor!"

"It does seem a bit extreme now that you speak of it. But — you see, we — I mean Bill — had no reason to feel nervous about anybody on that floor. He knew them all quite well — all friends in a sort of way."

"I see — I mean I don't see at all ..."

"It's a small matter. There was a little colony in that particular house. But — knowing something of the unusual proclivities of these Reilleys, it was into their rooms that Bill hustled the startled Mary."

"You followed?"

"I — well — sort of hung about and kept a genial eye on Mary in the sitting room — while Bill hunted up Ma Reilley and her brood and told them of the treat in store — I mean of what he wanted of them.

"And inside of five minutes there was the husky Ma Reilley, the sinuous Celia Reilley and the two boys — sixteen and fifteen, I believe the latter were — inside the room with the goggling, pallid Mary. I must admit the girl had some occasion to feel startled — for every manjack and woman jill of the Reilleys was as naked as she herself."

"For the love of heaven! What did they want of her?"

"You shall learn. The Reilleys are abnormal if you like — incestuous and everything else — and so cynical about their morbid impulses that, although Bill and I stepped outside the room, they did not at all mind that we watched through a crack beside the door what went on.

"It was — well — quite a scene — perhaps unexampled anywhere on earth except in the lives of this bestial but good-looking mother and her trio of cubs ..."

"For heaven's sake. Perry — tell me — can't you see that I am on pins and needles?"

"Even now I hesitate. You see — your nerves — your delicate sensibilities ..."

"You didn't consider them when you sent me out to tempt the Boerum boy odiously — and to fall a victim to a horrid, marvelous lechery!"

"But this is different. Well — you will have it! These nude boys and their lascivious sister and mother were all over the naked, screaming Mary like a pack of terriers!"

Chapter XVI

"Almighty father!" gasped Helen. "The poor child! What did they do — was she — raped?"

"No — but she would certainly not have escaped that fate had the Reilleys not respected the mighty muscles of the lurking Bill and had he not previously instructed them in how far they would be permitted to go with this tidbit of a virgin.

"He had given them carte blanche with the girl whom he considered his fiancee — save for the ultimate outrage of her white body."

"But what could they wish to do with her — a woman, a girl and two boys?" asked Helen bewilderedly.

"They rolled upon her like a torrent of lewd furies — they yanked her to her feet and squeezed her amid then-hot, excited nudities as if trying to express the juices from her snowy, shaking body.

"The tall mother held her upright by the loosened hair of her head while the daughter and the son vied in rubbing their torrid sexualities everywhere upon the satin body of the girl. They floored her then upon the coarse, dirty rug — and, surrounding her upon their knees and hands, they plunged their flaming faces upon her body as if it had been a snowy, rosy trough and they a quartet of swine.

"They nibbled, sucked, munched, lipped, licked — they ate and drank from her writhing beauties. In the brown hair of the scared girl's genitals, beneath her arms, their bared teeth gripped — yes, and even in the soft, full flesh of her buttocks and thighs. The viciously perverse family were, to all intents and purposes, literally mad with delight to have a naked maiden to feast upon thus ..."

"Great God — it's — unearthly!" whispered Helen, white to the lips.

"Very earthly, I'm afraid — although rare. I have known individuals like these — but never elsewhere an entire family given over to foaming, brutal, untrammelled lusts of the nature pervading — or afflicting, if you prefer — the estimable Reilleys ..."

"The father?"

"He is dead. I never saw him — but I think I can conjecture what aided materially at least in carrying him off in the prime of life — perhaps not such an unhappy death at that."

"And what?"

"Perhaps we'd better pass on ..."

"We can't — I shouldn't sleep!"

"You look a little ghastly, darling — even if lovely as always."

"It's from thinking of that Mary — drowned in lewd faces, in lips, teeth, tongues, fingers — oh, God!"

"It's too strong for you."

"Tell me about these Reilleys — the father."

"He died, as I say. I have never known exactly how. But the girl, Celia — a lithe, cream-skinned creature with rather coarse black hair and eyes that seem filmed except when a living flame animates them — has whispered things to me.

"The mother, Eileen — a dark haired Amazon with the rosy flesh of a woman of twenty in spite of her forty years — must always have held her spouse in a sort of lecherous, erotic, doubtless happy captivity."

"Captivity?"

"It was the wife's practice to sprawl him beneath her with entire informality whenever flames licked at her vulva. She would denude him, floor him, plant him on sofa or bed or chair — force him fearfully to respond to her incredible and teeming lusts.

"As the only daughter, Celia, entered her teens and reached a stage of piquant, adolescent charm which tempted the mother to corrupt her, the child was made witness of such scenes — scenes which never revolted her from the first, she frankly informs me, but always fired her with sheer delight.

"She had no reason to revere or fear such a father — a father whom she saw so supine before his wife's sensual whims and so forced — perhaps willing — to abandon all masculine claims to initiative or dominance.

"And this girl of barely fourteen began to seek her father out — to insist upon feeling him lasciviously — to run hands within his garments and caress his flesh as if he had been the young girl and she the male lecher who held the victim in a kind of erotic awe.

"If he shrank or protested feebly before this doubly abnormal lasciviousness of his daughter, then she took on something of the lewd fury of her mother. She pinched his naked flesh, took his tender sex squeezingly, forced it to harden into such a state as she had seen it possess under the unutterable provocations of her mother.

"She laid it bare one day, she told me — and then she went into a morbid rage of more than juvenile excitement. She stripped her young, budding breasts and rubbed upon their aching little tips this paternal member.

"She tugged at the swollen tool of the perturbed but necessarily inflamed man — whose sense of fatherhood made him still resist feebly — until he was forced to stoop. And beneath her short skirt — on her newly fledged sex — she rubbed the throbbing virility of her sire.

"He must have dared venture to complain to Eileen, his spouse — perhaps to protest that her indiscretion in letting their daughter see the unnatural copulation had had a terrible effect upon the child.

Chapter XVII

"If Eileen was moved at all by this plaint it was into a vicious and perverse pleasure over the premature and torrid display of a nature akin to her own in this rosy, creamy skinned child of hers.

"With the two small boys absent of an evening — sent early to bed — the woman took to exposing the sex of 'the head of the family' herself as they sat, reading or affecting to read, in the small sitting room.

"She would fondle it into stiffness as if absent-mindedly — and the still hale man, biting his lips, would endure stoically — knowing the storm of lustful fury which would be turned loose upon him if he ventured even the feeble remonstrance that their daughter was present.

"On tiptoe Celia would draw near — and she would watch with burning eyes the caressing of the great white shaft and of the ruddy, bulging knob by her mother's fingers. Eileen would smile at her rosily — would uncover her husband yet more copiously, showing the hanging balls and the hirsute belly of the male.

"And presently the woman silently took Celia's hand and encouraged her to toy with all these mysterious masculine attributes herself. The burning girl needed no encouragement. The man jumped and murmured under the hot fingers of his child — but, seeing the compressed lips and glowing, intent eyes of his formidable wife, he ventured no rebuke to either of his erotic persecutors.

"The evening came — Celia, she told me, was then fifteen and remarkably matured for her years — when the hot blooded mother gave a sharp, hysterical laugh as she saw the dazed, almost unendurable lechery which made the girl's head swim as, with both hands, she caressed her sire's swollen sex.

"Eileen caught her daughter to her. She drew her drawers from her body. Raising Celia's skirt high, she showed the shaking man, for the first time, the black fledged pussy of his enticing offspring.

"Although trembling with passion — as who would not under all the conditions? — Reilley appears to have summoned strength to combat faintly and hopelessly the hot horror of what he felt imminent.

"He stared with bulging eyes at the beauties of Celia — but after his amazing wife had drawn his hand over the smooth belly, the round, hard bottom and the palpitating sex of the maiden, he let his fingers fall to the side of the sofa upon which he lay.

"Whereupon the woman impatiently drew the almost naked Celia forward over her father's face and rubbed the girl's secrecies upon the features of the man.

" 'She's old enough — she shall have you, I swear — !' cried Eileen.

" 'No, no — oh — our daughter — !' he whimpered, aghast.

" 'You're wild after her, you reprobate — you know you are — !' raved the woman. 'Kiss her belly, you devil — kiss her cunt — !'

"Oh!" gasped Helen faintly.

"What is it?" queried Perry.

"Noth — nothing ..." she stammered, shielding her burning face. "Go on ..."

"With a soft cry Reilley caught his daughter by the naked buttocks as she lay with belly crushed upon his face. She felt his lips — his tongue. Flaming with delight — and quite unabashed in her pubescent lust — it was she now who rubbed her intimacies upon the man's face.

"With turned head — as she heard her father groan — she saw the woman working furiously upon the tense virility of her spouse.

"'It will excite me to see her fuck you — what is a maidenhead after all — she shall fuck you — !' clamored Eileen furiously."

Perry paused as he heard a smothered exclamation from the lips of the scarlet Helen.

"I'm being explicit, you see — you asked for this story — and I'm giving it exactly as it was told me by a participant. If it's too much for you ..."

The blonde waved a shaking hand to bid him continue. "The man Reilley — though subdued for years to his wife's less flagrant abnormalities — seems to have summoned strength from somewhere to decline once more to be the instrument of the deflowering which his daughter craved.

"For the time being the matter was dropped — perhaps because the wild passions of Eileen imperatively demanded personal assuagement.

"The woman tugged the disappointed Celia upright. With glittering eyes, she raised her own skirt waist high. She wore no drawers. Half nude and raging with lust, she bestrode her supine husband upon the couch.

"With a hoarse word or two she instructed Celia to adjust the male instrument to its proffered sheath — which the virgin gladly did. And once again the girl looked ardently on at the strange marital bout in which the male was possessed rather than possessing.

"Her father, Celia thinks now, had learned to be happy that it should be so — happy in a queer, complaisant adjusting of himself to whatever his spouse wished in a manner which he must have found degrading at first.

"In any event, Eileen had both the physique and the temperament to compel him to this supine passiveness — and she had no scruples whatever in having her way.

"And this she revealed fearfully on the very night succeeding the evening just spoken of. For Celia was drawn from slumber by her mother's voice. In her nightdress she answered the summons.

"And she found her father — surprised perhaps in his sleep — extended naked upon his back and bound to the bed with outdrawn limbs. The man was even gagged with a chemise of his wife's.

" 'We shall see who is to have control here — !' said Eileen huskily. 'Work your father up, Celia — and then you shall have your first piece.'

"Celia has told me that she was not in the least affrighted by the prospect of admitting that dagger into her flesh. She simply burned to know the unspeakable joys which she had seen her mother ecstatically possess.

"Worthy child of Eileen that she was, she had no least horror either of the incest — which, indeed, attracted her hugely.

"But there was a hitch nevertheless. The man was too nervous — perhaps too appalled, also, by what was demanded of him and by his utter captivity — to respond virilely to the lewd touches which neither the girl nor the woman spared him now.

"They doffed their nighties. Closing his eyes, the man refused doggedly to see the nudities which might have aided in bringing about the erection of his flesh.

"Twenty fingers were upon him at once. He sighed huskily. His body stiffened — but not the instrument upon which two females ardently worked. Exasperated, Eileen slapped his hip vehemently — and then cuffed his face soundly.

" 'Obstinate — that's what he is — !' she said indignantly. 'There's a way, though — oh, yes — there's a way! Put down your head, Celia — now lick this limp thing — '

"Somewhat abashed — despite her predestined lack of anything approaching real chastity — by the surprising demand of her mother, the girl hesitated. Whereupon Eileen set her the wanton example — promenading a red tongue upon the man's flaccid sceptre — and finally engulfing it within a capacious mouth.

" 'It's not only easy but delicious — ' declared the woman, raising a flushed face. 'When a person can't resist at all — like your father now — you'll find it fine to munch and nibble and lick a naked body anywhere — particularly here — where they're so touchy. Try it, Celia — I felt it quiver — you'll soon have it up if you suck a while — "

"Hesitantly the girl laid tongue to the white, soft mass reclining at her father's crotch. She licked; she enjoyed the contact, the taste — she began to enjoy even the thought of what she was doing. The hot blood of her mother coursed more rapidly in her veins.

"She felt the object quiver and stir. She raised her head to stare at it fascinatedly. She raised it delicately with her fingers. She poised her parted lips above its tip. She drew it between them.

"Deliciously Celia sucked her dad. Her sighs of utter content arose amid his muffled groans of rapture as she felt the virility stiffen, harden, expand until her mouth could contain only the smooth bulb.

"In his bonds the man rolled in somber ecstasy upon the bed. His wife looked on in wild delight as she saw the effect upon both participants of the shameless thing which she had engineered. Huskily she encouraged her daughter to finger the staff, the crinkled sack below, the hairy patch above.

"She instructed the now willing, docile pupil in the soft molding of all this male genital flesh which added to the madness of the conquered man. She taught Celia to intersperse with her voluptuous suction the lickings upon and beneath the knob which increased the delirium of Reilley until he twisted in his bonds, raving through his gag.

" 'Now — now, Celia — !' hissed the woman at last. 'Now get on him — and we'll see the last of this troublesome virginity of yours — !'

"But she had to tug at her naked child in order to force her to yield this occupation in favor of another. So luscious a morsel was the girl finding this paternal member that Eileen had to employ a sort of violence — and to tell her that she could suck this beauty at another time-before the wanton mother could detach Celia and lift the lust-weakened lass astride of her father's loins.

"Once there, though — once feeling her throbbing slit tickled by this still moist bulb held in her mother's fingers — the maiden promptly went so crazy with desire to impale herself that Eileen had to restrain her from too rapid and forceful a descent upon the upstanding rod.

"Luckily, Celia has an unusual resiliency of the inner tissues of her sexual passage."

"She has — what?" stammered Helen, looking at him wide eyed.

"Her cunt is small but elastic — the inner regions very pliable," he said brazenly.

Helen no longer resented the crude word.

"You — how do you know?" she whispered feverishly.

"She told me," he said demurely. "She said it hardly hurt her in the least to admit every particle of her father's goodly prick — even that first time...."

"You have amazing companions — startling confidantes!" she breathed.

"I have now such a companion and such a confidante as makes all others pale in my memory," he said.

Helen colored with a mixture of gratification and shame.

"I comprehend that I am being as — lewd — with you as any of these extraordinary creatures could be," she replied. "But it is like a glimpse into an unbelievable pit of lust to hear of these others."

He patted a young belly which felt warm and smooth to his touches through a thin gown of dark blue silk. The girl squirmed and shivered. More prolongedly he felt of the tender abdomen.

"Heavens — have you abandoned underwear entirely, Helen?" he queried in some surprise. "Your body seems naked under this thin silk."

"Oh!" she gasped. "Oh!"

And she hid her face in her hands as he lingeringly ran his flattened hands over all her person — feeling the silk move upon the polished skin, feeling the heat of the sensual little form penetrate to his fingers.

"You are naked — stark naked — stockings and this dress — and nothing else!" he whispered.

"I — it is warm ..." she gasped. "And it seemed to me delightfully — naughty — to feel myself nude under this gown — to know that with a whisk I could be quite bare — to wonder whether my state would be discovered. You see — it's all part of the extraordinary effect you have had upon me from the first. Yet — you must be good — our compact, you know!"

"But I am not barred from touches upon your clothes," he whispered delightedly. Stand up, Helen — let me feel of you everywhere through this layer of silk."

"Oh — I shall squeal, Perry — I shan't be able to prevent myself!" she quavered — tottering as she felt his fingers lasciviously upon her.

"These superb young breasts!" he gloated. "This soft belly — this tender, round bottom — I can feel the cleft between the cheeks as if you were unclad entirely! And this sweet mound — the hair — can you feel me tug it? Ah — for the love of heaven, Helen — spread your thighs — let me feel the lips — I shall go mad!"

She crumpled upon him with a groan as he touched in ecstatic intimacy the cleft so plainly perceptible through the tenuous fabric. And suddenly she was lying upon him — hugging him hotly — while their tongues mingled in a fury of lustful, twining caresses.

"You see — dear God — I'm dying!" she panted, raising her head at last.

"It's pitiful — you a virgin — for still a little while — and dying for relief!" he whispered. "Can you feel the stiffness of the spear you have aroused?"

"Yes — y-yes!" she quavered. "God in heaven — yes — under my belly — oh — I am burning!"

"Spend — can't you?"

"No — it — needs something ..."

"Shall I — put my hand under your skirt — relieve you as your husband does?"

"No, darling — no — I can't consent!"

"Shall I call the boy, Frank — and then leave you for a few minutes while you show him your nudity and demand his willing tongue upon it?"

"No, no, no — in the very house of my husband!"

"I'll tell you, dear. You shall straddle my knee. What matter if the short gown does ride up a little and show me something of your white thighs clenched upon my leg? You can rub your soft crotch gently against my trousers if the burning gets too strong for you."

"Oh — oh, Perry — it seems so shameful — like a bad girl in a pinafore! You won't laugh?"

"Laugh! I am far more likely to lose all self-control and rape you!"

"I'm not afraid of that — I know I can trust you ..."

"But not too far. I am more dangerous than you think. There, Helen — with your crotch quite bare against my lower thigh. By God — I can feel the lovely warmth of your wee slit through the worsted!"

"Perry — it's so nice and rough — oh — I can hardly keep from — rubbing — h-hard!"

"That will be your privilege."

"I may — w-wet your — t-trousers."

"Don't think of that — how your fine thighs squeeze my leg!"

"Go on now — while I perch here. Celia's father took her...

"She took him, rather — and a good many times after that — either in her mother's company or without that companionship."

"The man allowed it?"

"You have seen how much voice he had in the amorous life of his household. He was helpless in the hands of his lascivious amazon of a spouse. That he enjoyed madly being straddled by either daughter or wife there can be no doubt — and he shot great gushes into them with an infernal rapture.

"He undoubtedly had compunctions concerning his relations with Celia — but he had no voice in that matter at all as nearly as I can determine. He was simply a sort of kept beast of pleasure by this time — his wife objecting even to his keeping a job because that would interfere with his being at hand when she wanted him for any sensual purpose.

"She herself was already making an ample income through her connection with my band — I mean — in ways that would hardly interest you and of which Reilley himself knew nothing.

"I am telling you all this, Helen, in order to give you some faint perception of the extraordinary group of naked animals — calling themselves a family — to which the maiden Mary, coveted of Bill, was turned over for conversion from her tenets of chastity. I shall have to go a little farther in revealing how the two younger brothers of Celia, as fast as they reached puberty, were absorbed into the whirlpool of abnormal lust of which their mother was the vortex.

"Celia told me these things too. Indeed, she was the ally and comrade of her mother in corrupting these lads — who, considering the blood that coursed in their veins, took naturally to what was expected of them.

"The boys — Jake and Joe — were, at thirteen and eleven, already sucked by their mother when she was pleased with them — although not to the extent of asking of them a premature spasm. They grew up, as a matter of fact, healthy and robust — -and perverted to the marrow.

"The elder is what you might call a 'confidence gentleman' of parts — and has never served a day in atonement.

"Upon the rabid delight manifested by Celia at the time of her more than voluntary deflowering, Eileen took the girl into more complete confidence. She was taken to the beds of her brothers at night — permitted to watch the first flowering of their pubescence — and to suck their joyously proffered young members when the lads were esteemed worthy of this 'reward' for good conduct in the household — which often consisted of such admirable feats as bits of successful shoplifting.

"Their black haired and now beautifully matured sister was shown to the boys at night quite naked. They were wild about her naturally. And when Eileen evolved a system of 'punishments' for Jake and Joe which involved licking the violated but rosy cunt of their sister when they had displeased the mother, it speedily became clear that they regarded this as the reverse of a punishment.

"Of an evening — sometimes under the very eyes of the helplessly inflamed Reilley senior — these boys became wont to crouch beneath the skirts or between the bared legs of both the ladies — and to make the latter spend with their gluttonous caresses.

"But the peculiar — probably unexampled — species of almost sadistic voluptuousness which made this family crave a tender, helpless victim upon whom they could unitedly rush and fall came about strangely.

"The father had passed away. The boys — now seventeen and sixteen respectively — had long since been permitted to replace the man in the arms of their mother and sister. The quartet scrouged — and did other things — together in evenings of infernal luxury.

"But the two boys became involved with a weak and unprincipled employe of a jewelry establishment. A theft was perpetrated. The employe was apprehended — and certain babblings of his brought the police around to interview Jake and Joe.

"They found not the boys but the mother — who met the crisis by getting me on the phone after the departure of the officers.

"Well — it chanced that I had certain connections, certain means of preventing unpleasant aftermath. It was necessary, in freeing Jake and Joe of odium to set free the peaching clerk also — who was, nevertheless, the most guilty of the trio.

"Now this clerk had a pretty wife — a girl of twenty — to whom he had but recently been wedded. And this startled girl found herself hustled one evening out of the late dusk into the hallway of a cheap apartment house by two youths in caps.

"Presently, prevented from even crying out by a hand clamped upon her mouth, she found herself in the unpretentious living room of an apartment.

"About her there were two boys, a girl and an older woman — all surveying her in a way that shook her nerves. Mystified but fearing for her life, the girl found pleas and threats quite without effect upon her silent audience.

"An effort to cry out resulted in such a shaking from the formidable woman as made her teeth chatter and her head reel. She was gagged now — bound at ankles and wrists and cast upon the carpet in the midst of the ominous and silent group.

"At last — the captors having consulted together — she was ungagged — upon promising with a nod not to make any noise. She was questioned. Yes — she was Mrs. Catherine Foy, she said.

"Satisfaction that no blunder had been made gleamed in four pairs of eyes about her. There were other gleams, too, as her tidy outlines and youthful charms were eyed by the quartet.

"Queries became lascivious — though Celia tells me that no actual plan of vengeance upon her peaching husband through ill treatment of his bride had been outlined up to this time. But the always unbridled lechery of the four Reilleys tended naturally to burst forth at sight of the girlish charm of this Catherine.

"With the matron acting as inquisitor, the now awed and shivering girl was asked about her marital relations. Dire threats of consequences in case she declined to speak loosened her tongue. Yes, she said — her husband fucked her every single night. Baby on the way? No.

"Yes — she loved to be screwed — certainly, she stammered — wasn't it natural for a young wife to like that?

"Ever take her husband's prick in her mouth? Great heavens — no — what an idea! Nor did he suck her between the legs — certainly not — she never heard of such a thing! Was one man — one husband — enough for her? Naturally — who could wish — or endure — more?

"About her wedding night ... ? Heavens — must she tell about that? Why — yes — they had been naked at last — had taken off their night clothes. What could she say — it was horrible to have to talk of such matters!

"Yes — she had liked to see his prick — though she had been very ashamed too. It had been swollen — big — yes — she had taken it in her hand when he asked her to do so — and had petted it. She had let him see her cunt too — oh — must she use such horrid words! She had almost fainted when he fingered it and opened it a little there in the clear light.

"Yes — it had hart a good deal when he shoved it into her very slowly. But now ... ? Oh — now it always felt lovely beyond words! Would she show her cunt now to all this crowd if her limbs were unfettered? Great God — no — oh — please — you couldn't ask such a thing!

"But it appeared that they not only asked this display but intended to have it amply given.

"The amazon of a hostess approached and unfastened the bride's nether limbs. She bade Catherine arise and expose herself from stockings to navel in the center of the room.

"As the bride still lay there — wide-eyed and shivering with terror and shame over the catechism and over this incredible demand which followed it — the husky woman suddenly bent and, grasping her trim ankles, lifted her until she dangled head downwards.

"Over the brown hair of the dragging head fell the neat gown. Snowy drawers, half covering bare, white thighs, were revealed.

"About the frantically shamed and alarmed bride and her persecutor gathered the extraordinary trio whom Catherine did not even yet know to be the children of the muscular woman. Hanging there helplessly. — for she dared not even kick in the effort to release herself — the girl heard lecherous comments.

" 'Nice, thin drawers — see — the hair shows through.' She heard in a boy's voice.

" 'Yes — but they would be open,' was the contribution of the other boy.

"'Cut them open — but first — feel her up,' said the sister of these two. 'Can you hold her, ma?'

" 'Sure — help yourselves,' laughed the woman grimly.

"And three pairs of licentious hands smoothed the bare thighs, entered the legs of the drawers, touched lingeringly the expanded crotch and the soft bottom which were still summarily concealed.

"The confused and frightened Catherine — hardly believing in the reality of what was happening to her — gasped and sighed and quivered as she felt these lewd and concentrated touches. She heard about her now inflamed murmurs of fearful suggestiveness.

" 'Frig her' — we want to fuck her, ma' — 'no, make her suck first' — 'yes, yes, she must suck all of us' — 'that'll be one on Foy!' — 'she's got to be naked' — 'Oh, I'm wild! I'll bet she's a wonder — !'

"All these and more the dangling girl heard. And then there arose the vibrating voice of the girl — Celia.

" 'I want — oh — -something awful — !' she wailed thickly. 'Let's crush her — oh, my God — do everything — !'

Chapter XVIII

"Mrs. Catherine Foy was tumbled to the floor again. Her bound hands were unfettered. It was demanded of her to arise and to display all her body to all these unknowns. She got to her feet and swayed there shaking her head mutely as once more she was ordered to disrobe.

"Once more Ma Reilley — though the bride did not know the name or identity of the rosy, muscular woman with the eyes of flame — shook the girl until her teeth chattered. Subdued now, she succumbed entirely.

"It had penetrated her whirling head that her sole chance to emerge unharmed from this uncanny place was to part with all modesty — to show her person as these fearful creatures wished.

"She uncovered her body — denuded her white, straight legs, her belly of a young wife, her firm breasts and fine buttocks. The four revelled in her shame, nudging each other in delight and in rising lechery.

"The cowed girl — nude as the dawn now — was forced to go from one to the other about the circle and yield herself to degrading, licentious gropings as well as to lustful eyes. And it startled and terrified her the more to find that the black haired girl of her own age and the rosy cheeked amazon were fully as furious in their wanton treatment of her as were the two boys.

"Catherine fully expected now to be permitted to dress and go on her way. She had gathered by this time — through disparaging references to her husband — that she was being insulted and shamed thus as the outcome of wrath against her spouse cherished by this mysterious family. But surely — no matter what her husband had done — this brazen quartette must feel this atonement sufficient. Hadn't they degraded him as well as herself beyond all words by dealing with his bride like this?

"She shrank and gasped as she heard herself ordered to undress the older of the boys. But as the matron reached for her bare shoulder with a muscular hand whose power she already knew the girl abjectly surrendered once more.

"With fumbling, unsteady fingers she divested the grinning, flushed Jake of all his garments. And even when she was able to avert her crimson face at length, she could still see the boy's white, wiry body and the rampant, red crowned organ which he shook at her ominously.

"She was forced to go on and strip Joe of his clothing also — and then to disrobe the females whom she now knew to be mother and sister of these perversely excited and gloating youths.

"It is possible — Celia thinks so — that the virginal appearance of Catherine, her anguished shame and apprehension, her status as a bride of only a few short weeks, so stimulated the already exuberant lechery of the four nude persons about her as to determine the unspeakable treatment of her which ensued.

"Naked boys and women rushed upon the trembling Catherine from all sides as if at a signal. She was surrounded, crushed in what seemed like a myriad arms and legs. Full, hard breasts and flat chests were dragged upon her soft body. Swollen virilities and ardent cleft were rubbed hotly upon her flesh. Thighs gripped her as well as arms.

"It was as if lustful wolves combatted for her possession to glut the hunger of their senses. They fell to the floor with the bride as she staggered and slipped. They rolled upon her. If the boys bound her between them and seemed to get her to themselves, then instantly the woman and the girl were casting themselves upon the heap of flesh, prying the gasping Catherine away from her would-be lovers.

"At last the scarlet cheeked Eileen arose from the tangled mass. Her voice arose in a fevered trumpeting.

" 'Stop — stop — everybody shall have her — !' rasped the woman. 'I'll rap a few of you if I have to — !'

"Slowly and reluctantly her children released the shaking Catherine. They allowed themselves to be placed in a line on the carpet — each one supine and with raised knees and parted thighs. At one end of the line Eileen placed herself in like posture.

"With threats which invalidated all modesty on the part of the tingling victim, the woman summoned her. Shivering, the bride obeyed every muttered command. She sucked the stiff nipples of Eileen — -she licked the woman's large, firm bust and her broad, heaving belly.

"And at last, with a little cry of anguished shame, she obeyed the command to kiss and to lick the rose lipped furrow between the expanded thighs.

"Hotly the woman — clutching the humiliated bride by her disordered brown hair — revelled in the sensations thus aroused. From her either side her children watched in perverse joy and in envious waiting.

" 'Inside, ma — huh — shan't she — inside — ?' cried Joe eagerly.

" 'Yes — yes — I've got to — sp-spend — !' gasped his mother.

"And the boy parted with his fingers the borders of the woman's maternal cleft. With a frightened abandon which approached recklessness now, Catherine found the clitoris as directed — and she licked it with a fury and with a fear of her lascivious tyrants which soon caused Eileen to shudder and foam in the delirium of an emission.

"From the still palpitating slit the bride raised a now pallid face. Fearing she would faint — although Celia vows to me that she seemed to detect more than fear and horror in the girl's expression now — Jake gave her wine and she was allowed a brief respite.

"Then Eileen, recovering from her gratified lethargy, took lustful command again. She ordered Catherine to suck the rigid engines of the two boys — who lay between their mother and sister. With a terrified humiliation the bride kissed and lapped and sucked the twin members alternately — going from one to the other upon the muttered word of their mother.

"And now an odd thing happened — perhaps due in part to the torn, disordered nerves of a girl to whom all these debaucheries "were utterly new and unheard of. For her pallor vanished as she gorged her warm mouth with one after the other of these great cherries.

"She grew rosy — scarlet — crimson. Her eyes glittered — her fingers feverishly ran upon the genitals of the recumbent youth whom she chanced to be delighting.

"In the horrid fever of the trance which came upon her, she sucked these young organs gluttonously. So Celia vows at least — though not in these words. What the black haired girl really said to me was this: 'That juicy kid, knowing nothing up till then except how to lay down and let her hubby fuck her, sucked them pricks like she just had to have a shot down her throat!'

"In any event, her pretty head had to be lifted by force at last from the crotch of the happy Joe — for Eileen — had other plans by this time. She tugged the bride to the longing body of Celia — and so hugely overwrought was Catherine by this time that the change in sex appeared not even to give her pause.

"Her red lips descended upon the small, pink furrow between the opened legs of the girl even before the command was breathed by the adult tyrant. She hardly paused even to kiss the lips and to tickle them with her tongue.

"With her own trembling fingers she opened the tiny aperture as best she could — and she sent her pointed tongue inward to find the already stiff bud of the clitoris — as she had been forced to find it in the body of the woman.

"Celia tells me that she was so hot that she spent almost at once. As the bride continued dazedly to lick up the dew of the discharge, the passionate Celia took fire again.

"Panting an order, she caught Catherine by the hair — and the girl resumed the licentious caress — continuing it until her younger tyrant writhed in a second spasm.

Chapter XIX

"There was another brief rest — during which Catherine lay on the carpet. She was shivering from toes to head — and, lest she should encounter other eyes, an arm was cast over her flushed face.

"At last she was given over to the two boys — for such pollution as they wished. They matched for the first enjoyment of the bride's body. Jake, winning, crept upon her.

"Under her buttocks Eileen thrust a cushion to elevate the target — and then, while her older son slowly penetrated the hitherto chaste groove of the newly made wife, the woman busied herself in such obscene caresses upon both as served to raise into a frenzy the ineffable agitation of both participants in this dishonoring of a recent marriage.

"Celia tells me that Catherine struggled a trifle as she realized that she was to be more than technically untrue to her martial vows. She wailed dully as she felt the bulb of the boy's pecker press its inward way,

"And then, suddenly, she uttered a long, low moan of infinite desire and longing. She hugged her aggressor and sought blindly to kiss him. And it was necessary for the smiling Eileen to hold her firmly in place for a time in order to prevent her maddened, enraptured gyrations from dislodging her young lover.

"While the unexpectedly mutual frenzy of this copulation was in progress, Celia, lying back in a low chair, cuddled upon her naked body the straining, eager form of her younger brother.

"The boy, panting with lust, rubbed his turgid tool upon his sister's satin belly while both of them watched the coiling, crazed progress of a sexual combat which was now white flame.

"As the bride, spending for the second time as she felt the member of Jake gush within her, sank back flaccidly in a quasi swoon, already Joe had torn himself from his luxurious couch and knelt impatiently to take the place of his brother.

" 'Not yet, you young devil — !' laughed his mother. 'Give Jake a chance to get out at least — and give the girl a chance to come to herself.'

"She slapped her younger son jovially as, when Jake at last slowly rolled off and lay gasping by the side of Catherine, Joe struggled to supplant him at once. But it was the more fastidious Celia who took the drooping bride to the bathroom and cleansed her imperatively before bringing her in to be subjected to this new assault.

"Joe had his marvelous piece — and, after a certain nervous reluctance on the part of the bride to be so soon again taken had passed away in a rising, new fury of lust, the younger boy had no reason to complain of lack of cooperation. Indeed, this bout was at least as torrid a one as its predecessor, it appears.

"The bride was released then. For fear lest his dishonor might not come to the ears of the man Foy, one of the Reilley boys took pains to whisper a word into the ears of the traitor as he passed him upon a corner.

"The next day Catherine appeared of her own accord in the dwelling of the Reilleys. She was in tears — and she showed frankly her bruised white thighs and reddened young belly and wealed buttocks to Ma Reilley — who promptly and indignantly called in her sons to look themselves upon the traces of the castigation applied by a cowardly and furious husband.

"That night Foy took an awful pummelling in an empty lot. Thereafter he ventured no further abuse of his young wife. He dared not even reproach her for having informed the ones responsible for the dishonor of the Foy family of the way he had treated her.

"Catherine went and came as she pleased thereafter — and she often pleased to be a naked nymph in the midst of a perverse and abnormal group of debauchees. She has been — er — valuable, this young and pretty woman, in many ways. She was behind a counter to your left in the store — you may have glimpsed her."

"But — these things are all quite beyond words!" quavered Helen. "And you — a man like you — to be on such intimate terms with persons of such a status — persons in whom I seem to see sinister, criminal modes of living — that you can learn from their own lips of such doings! And you — interfering to get them out of trouble with the law!"

"We must do our little best," he said lightly — even though he may have inwardly regretted the indiscretion of some of his confidences. "I have not always been a floorwalker — nor even a secretary. Acquaintances belonging to the submerged portion of the populace may be valuable in certain contingencies — as many a man of wealth and eminence could tell you if he would."

"But these people sounded like — marauders — thieves!"

"Humble emulators, some of them no doubt, of the bigger thieves who control business and politics and civilization in general. They are perhaps more admirable, for all their knavery, than, say, our ruling financiers — for they have the valor to run risks which the latter seldom face."

"It makes me shudder to think of your ever having had such contacts."

"They were not always unpleasant — nor did they involve me personally very deeply — or dangerously. Can you not imagine that Robin Hood or Captain Kidd found life stirring — not lacking in flavor?"

"Why — I suppose ..."

"Could you imagine yourself queening it amid a rough and tumble crew of so called enemies of society — a bunch of primitives — some of the males with bulging muscles which could crush you if they wished — others with the brains of foxes — but all skillfully directed by a power that they recognize?"

"Why, I — heavens!"

"Could you lie on the rough planks at the bottom of a dashing and pursued launch — and let your naked body be greased by rough, admiring males so that you could glide like a swimming mermaid through the water if that should become necessary?"

"Perry — oh — you bewilder me!"

"Could you go from a deserted house where marauders had foregathered to the most luxurious of hostelries for a short or prolonged stay — and then back again for a time if that seemed prudent? Would you enjoy being known as the 'moll' of the chief — and calmly let yourself be seen in bed with him by imperturbable men or women who had come to consult with him?

"How would you feel if called upon to make a cross country dash by swift car — to lead a gypsy life for perhaps days — to eat al fresco meals in a grove while others watched anxiously for distant dust along the road — to bathe your white body in a chance brook, unable to shield it from coarse men clustered around for the purpose of admiring your nudity?

"Could you learn without fainting that your man had gone broke — to the extent of sixty thousand ill acquired smackers — against a wheel and that it would be necessary for him to run certain speedy risks if you were to keep that luxurious little hideaway which you and he occupied — when you could ... ?"

"Are you crazy!"

"Would you like to sleep with me, baby — to have to sleep with me whether or not you wanted to — on a dingy cot this night and amid all the luxury possible on another night? Would you like to be sold back presently to somebody having a previous and better right to you as a bedfellow — and would you sneak out after you had rejoined him to visit me once in a while?"

"You are raving — intolerable!"

The man drew a long breath and passed a hand across his brow.

"Yet I think," he said slowly, "that you would be — wonderful — under certain circumstances."

"You're having some kind of a horrid dream — I don't think I even wish to know the dream," she said uneasily.

He was silent, eyeing her.

"What a bit of loot!" he muttered at last. "Loot to revel in before letting it rebuild the shattered exchequer. If the loot went willingly so much the better. Can you picture yourself ... ?"

His lips clamped suddenly on an outgiving which he felt perhaps too risky.

"I don't understand," she faltered. "But if you refer to me as loot' you are being insulting beyond words!"

Perry smiled now the smile which always melted and attracted the girl.

"Just mush," he explained lightly.

"You didn't finish telling me about that poor dear Mary — who wanted to enter a convent but found herself rushed naked down a hall by a brutal suitor and thrust into a den of Reilleys."

"That's true — I didn't. I cut off the yarn to explain the vagaries of the Reilley family more fully to you. Well — Mary was assailed much as Catherine had been at the outset. There was this difference, though — the powerful Bill lurked there, unknown to Mary but ready to plunge and commit mayhem, first degree assault or even murder in case there was any effort to devirginise the girl or to make her gratify animal, perverse passions with her lips or fingers.

"You see the remarkable Reilleys were restricted this time in their enjoyment of the tender, frightened victim hurled among them. But — instructed to feast upon and try to excite this vestal beyond her endurance — they did what they could — which was a good deal after all.

"The naked maiden was enwrapped by what must have seemed to her a thousand bare, warm, lecherous bodies and ten thousand legs and arms. Furry pussies and rampant male members crowded and crushed and rubbed against her flesh wherever they could be applied.

"Squealing weakly, utterly helpless, Mary was presently allowed to sink to the floor. As she choked and gasped and strove to rise and flee now, she found herself spreadeagled upon her back and fastened with cords to heavy furniture and to the wail.

"Scared out of her wits, she saw the nude quartette descend upon her. Fingers, tongues, lips were upon her from toes to neck — quite literally from toes to neck. Mouth succeeded mouth now upon the pink intimacy so fully exposed by the forced parting of her thighs — and the inexperienced girl twisted and moaned and fought vainly against her bonds as her dainty slit was licked and even entered by those maddening tongue-tips.

"As she contrived to turn upon her side, the elder boy, Jake, succeeded in holding her thus until he had succeeded in parting her pretty buttocks and sending a red, licentious tongue between them for such caresses as the frantic maiden had never even imagined.

"Coincidentally with this the perverse Joe devastated her shaking nerves still further by glueing his mouth between her legs and thrusting a lewd tongue to her clitoris.

"The girl's breathing was a series of hoarse sighs; and she was convulsed throughout all her fine, snowy body by this incredible assault. Celia and Eileen knelt to suck her nipples — and the woman raised her head now to inquire huskily:

" 'And do ye still want to join the nuns, me girl — or would ye rather have a fine boy for a bedfellow — ?'

" 'No — oh — o-o-oh — n-no — !' whispered Mary faintly — almost beyond the power of coherent speech.

" 'Ah — ye don't want to enter a convent — ?' smirked the woman.

" 'Yes — yes, I do — I must — !'

"'Ye wouldn't rather have a nice, naked boy — like Bill, say — able to lie on ye every night?'

" 'I wouldn't — oh — I wouldn't — !'

"'Ah — give her a breathing spell, children. Unfasten her — that's right. Now then — do you sit on Ma's lap, me child — and be nicely cuddled — while you see what sort of a game it is that ye hope to miss playing.'

"Held upon the naked woman's knees, the shaking Mary saw the black-haired Celia recline upon cushions to give herself incestuously and completely to her brother Jake. The fury of their engagement was typical of the fiery blood of the Reilleys.

"Wide eyed and shivering, Mary sought at first not to watch this hitherto unwitnessed mingling of male and female flesh. But, with cooing voice in her ear, Eileen had taken her bosom with one hand and her crotch with the other.

"'Look, me darling — ' she murmured — 'or else I'll have to stick this long finger way into ye.'

"Gasping, the girl turned to watch then — in maidenly fear of the threatening finger and of the effect which it would have upon both her nerves and her flesh. Suddenly she moaned feebly and cast a hand over her eyes — and Eileen saw that what had given her this added jolt was the fact that Joe, kneeling above his impaled sister's head and showing dangling testicles and a hard rump, had forced his stiff member part way into the willing mouth of Celia.

" 'Help — help — oh — father in heaven — !' wailed Mary thickly.

"And she stiffened and writhed, panting. For the fingertip which had penetrated now to her tiny clitoris and the other fingers which caressed her breasts and toyed with her now erect nipples drove her frantic as she watched the uncanny lechery of the trio upon the floor.

"The lucky girl has a prick in her at each end — ' whispered the rosy cheeked Ma Reilley. 'If she had another fine brother like them two he'd have it in her rump no doubt. There's no joy like this in life — wait till ye try it — for ye will try it — a healthy, pretty child like you — mark me well — do ye think ye'll escape being rogered by entering a convent?

"'Ye will not, then — a priest will see you — and have you — they do as they like, them reverends! Ah God — we love to have a tender young thing like you to break in — I wish I was a man — I'd ram ye, my dear girl — !'

"And she broadened her buxom bare thighs to enjoy more fully the squirming of the round rump of the beleaguered, gasping Mary between them as her caressing fingers drove the girl into what was now a recognizable fury of unwilling passion.

"Panting, the virgin saw through glazed eyes the absorption of boyish sperm by the ecstatically groaning Celia within mouth and sex.

"On the broad lap of the woman and bound by her great arms, Mary tossed and moaned as that indefatigable finger wrought her into a lather of shamed rapture. She cast out her arms and rolled her head on the fine naked breasts of the woman.

"Recovering from the after effects of their triune spasms, the children of Eileen gathered about to watch intently and libidinously.

" 'Do ye suck the darling, Celia — ' bade the woman, as she withdrew her guilty finger. 'And do ye let her see what effect your fingers will have on this pair of spalpeens here while ye do it.'

"With her hands she held the slender thighs of Mary far apart. Dropping to her knees, Celia licked the wee gash from which the finger of her mother had just departed — and while she did this she reached forth to either side for the now drooping peckers of her brothers.

"With fevered breathing — and quite beyond any power of resistance or even complaint — Mary shivered under the action of this expert tongue as it penetrated. Her eyes were wide and wild as she saw the dangling sexes of the two boys stiffen and extend themselves once more beneath the skilled, licentious fingerings of their sister.

"Suddenly the overwrought virgin cried out dully. With the naked toes of each foot she reached blindly to touch the rising rods of the two males.

" 'Will ye be fucked — ?' whispered Eileen raucously. 'Are ye ready to take it — like the girl ye should be?'

" 'Yes — n-no — yes-yes — !' shrieked Mary. 'No — yes — oh — let me — !'

"Upon a signal from her mother Celia reluctantly ceased to caress the savory delicacy between the legs of the maiden. Eileen let her burden slip to the carpet.

" 'More — more — oh — o-o-h — I'm burning — oh — more — !' screamed the tormented Mary, writhing on the floor and trying to grasp at the stiff members of the boys.

" 'Hist — hist — !' said Eileen stridently — and she looked expectantly at the door where she knew Bill and myself to be lurking.

"Bill had long since undressed, the scoundrel! He strode into the room now in the guise of Adam — of an Adam prepared on the instant to engender a Cain or an Abel.

"He stood above the nude Mary. His face was a mask of lust. Seeing him, the maiden — lost now to all shame — clawed feverishly at his ankles.

" 'Bill — Bill — !' she wailed.

"And, striving weakly to draw him, she clung to his legs and rubbed her tiny, swollen nipples against his calves.

"This Bill is — as I have said and as you may have gathered without my comments — a ruffian and a roughneck, though not devoid of certain qualities. He proved, nevertheless, to have sufficient delicacy of feeling to be unwilling to make a woman of this swiftly converted novice in presence of so many.

" 'You done well, you handsome devil — you and your tiger cats — ' he said now to Eileen. 'Now get to hell out of here — the pack of you — !'

" 'I want to see the first screw of the future Mrs. Bill Boyd — !' clamored the woman. 'We all want to see it — you can't turn us out of our own sitting room — !'

" 'You'll get out if you know what's best for you — V he roared, grating his teeth.

" 'And I also — ?' I asked smilingly — for I had followed him into the room.

He scratched his shaggy head.

" 'Well, boss — ' he said at last — 'the fact is I'd rather — but if you really want to see, you can — '

" 'It's no great matter,' I smiled. 'I can quite understand your wish to be alone with your bride. Do I get a slice of this lovely Mary later on — ?'

" 'At your service — !' he grinned. 'After we're married you can roll her once in a while — '

Chapter XX

"And so — that was the 'romance' of the pair who are now Mr. and Mrs. William Boyd," observed Perry with a chuckle.

"Heavenly powers!" quavered Helen. "Finish it, you aggravating creature! Did you all go out — or did you see Mary lose her ... ?"

"We went out — and I saw to it that the Reilleys did not even peek into the room — though Mary at least was in a state not to mind if a mob saw what happened to her. She was pale but happy when he brought her in in his arms to allow the woman to lave her body half an hour later — and she was quite free now of any notion of becoming a nun."

"And?"

"They were married ..."

"That much I had gathered. I want to know whether you ..."

"Yes — I was present — and made a wedding gift."

"Not that — you horrid thing! Did you ... ?"

"Yes — I kissed the bride."

"But later on — have you ever ... ?"

"Well?"

"You know — don't be so mean! Did you ever — lie with her?"

The man grinned. He seemed to search his recollections.

"It seems to me now that I did," he said at length. "Of course I can't be expected to recall all my social engagements."

"Tell me about it," she whispered with a little moue.

"Jealous?"

"Don't be silly! What right have I to be jealous?"

"To be sure. You don't, by any possibility, wish to — er — lie with me yourself?"

"By no means — never — nor with any other man!"

"Then it wouldn't be reasonable to be jealous, would it now?"

"Of course not — and I'm not — not jealous in the very least."

"I shall have you, you know."

"You shall not! You talk more and more horridly to me. You are trying to frighten me — I know that quite well, Mr. Allen!"

"Oh well — if you're certain, Mrs. Reed."

"But I do want to know whether you — had this man's stolen bride?"

"Had her?"

"Don't pretend not to understand. I know what you want — naughty words. Did you — copulate?"

"Copulate?"

"Perry Allen — did you fuck this Mary?"

"Oh — that? Yes — I certainly did — and vehemently!"

"When? how?"

"She is an accepted and valued member now of the small — er — coterie over which I have a certain control — for business purposes. It was some three weeks after the nuptials that we secured for Mary a position as social secretary to a lady whose name would be familiar to you — an engagement which had certain ulterior ends on our parts.

"It became necessary for Bill — and myself to confer at midnight with his wife. We got the message through to her — and she met us in her employer's little private park at Southampton.

"We had our chat. Then we found the house dark and all the doors locked by some officious footman. It became necessary to hoist Mary in through a window. She was but lightly clad. The window was high. She slipped upon my shoulders as her husband, on tiptoe, was about to lift her the remaining foot or two. I found my head and cheeks muffled in perfumed, exquisite feminine flesh.

"I got torrid immediately. I grabbed her back — and Bill saw at once how I felt — for the moonlight revealed her to him with her white, naked thighs kicking under my fingers and lips.

"Bill is a good fellow. The bloom was not yet off his immense delight in this delicate girl, mind you. Yet — when he saw my face and my agitating — he grumbled to her to stop struggling and to 'be good' to the boss.

"She still fought a little — but weakly — as I planted her on a sloping bit of grass under some bushes.

" 'No — oh, Bill, Bill — !' she wailed softly.

"He quieted her — with a great hand over her lips — and he stripped up her clothes with his other hand. She looked very sweet and seductive there in the pale moonlight. Her body is pretty — and it was naked now from waist to stockings.

"I rammed her with gusto and passion. It was a silly and dangerous thing to do — where anybody who chanced to be wakeful might have looked from a window and seen, vaguely at least, what was going on. Nevertheless, I did it."

"Did she — like it — finally?"

"Unless I am much deceived she enjoyed it thoroughly — as soon as sensations drove from her mind the sentimentality for which a bride may be forgiven."

"And — since that?"

"The pathos of my celibacy has sometimes drawn her from Bill's couch to mine — when the opportunity offered."

"Great heavens — and her husband knows it?"

"He laughs roughly about a quaint little liking for me which presently developed in the girl. I do not know whether it still persists — not having seen her for some time. But I think he gets a queer sort of kick out of the situation.

"Some of these great brutes who seem to be sheer physical power and with very primitive minds are capable of surprising cerebral reactions at times. For instance: He found Mary in her chemise one day — and equipped with a pair of scissors with which she was seeking to detach a lock of brown hair from her little fleece. Pumping the embarrassed girl, he discovered that she wished to enclose in a box of candy which she was giving me a bit of hair from her pussy.

"Laughing uproariously, he himself clipped the lock and put it in a bit of tissue paper for enclosure in the package."

"For the love of God!"

"When she returned from that Southampton job we lived for some days in the same apartment. And I have known Bill — surmising why his little wife was restless at his side — to strip off her nighty and, with a slap on her naked rump, send her into my chamber to pass the rest of the night."

"Of all things!"

"Yes — of all things the very best — you were about to say — is a fine screw!"

"I wasn't — for I don't know anything about it — and besides — I don't use such language."

"It is true that your education has been neglected — though I do the best I can with a retarded pupil. I am hampered here in my curriculum. Elsewhere I shall progress more rapidly with your instruction."

"You are very cocky, professor!"

"Cocky? Ha — you have observed that! It is impolite, though, to look down there — and to mention the fact..."

"I suppose you are the most brazen person in all the world! You know very well I wasn't — looking down there — until you called my attention."

"Would you wish the trousers removed? I don't make this proffer to everybody."

"Goodbye — you horrid thing! I shall never be alone with you again."

Chapter XXI

A large car drove through the dusk down a city avenue. On the rear seat sat a benevolent appearing, well clad man of middle age. Beside him there lounged gravely and luxuriously a younger person — a lady who might well have been a pampered and faintly haughty daughter of Park Avenue — perhaps progeny of the man at her side, although she appeared possibly a trifle mature for that.

The broad shouldered chauffeur who piloted the car dexterously through traffic wore livery. Occasional curious or envious glances from the sidewalk approved of this aristocratic group. Everything was quite comme il faut about the picture presented — even to the shining lacquer and metal of the expensive car and to the hardly audible purr of its powerful engine.

Yes — everything was in excellent keeping about this equipage and its contents — except perhaps the fact that was hidden from passers — the fact that a great bundle stirred and seemed to sigh sometimes at the feet of the two occupants of the capacious rear of the car.

There was another oddity too. The man at times stared through the small window at the traffic behind them. He was doing so now.

"OK — nothing to worry about," he muttered to the attractive companion of his pleasure ride.

Strangely, he spoke without moving his lips noticeably. The low words oozed from a corner if his mouth. The girl drew a long breath.

"I shan't believe it until we get out into the country — where we can see every car behind us — " she said.

Her gracious, delicately amused smile would have concealed from any onlooker whatever of apprehension or of earnestness her words and tone betrayed.

"It was a hell of a thing to have to do!" she suddenly snapped — still with that smile. "I believe the boss is crazy wanting a girl snagged right out of traffic when it's barely dusk!"

"Gotta be reasonable, duchess," muttered the man. "He said that was the only possible time to get at her."

"Well — she's here — if only somebody hasn't seen — and we don't get a bunch of cursed busies after us when we get out of this crush."

"She came along nice a lamb, didn't she?"

"What could she do — with you and Mike grabbing her all of a sudden and a shawl over her head. Jeez — we were lucky to find that block deserted just as she came tripping along! Even at that there was a couple guys half a block away — just coming down some steps ..."

"I was pikin' them — they didn't see a thing — too far away."

"Maybe — but how the devil do you know about all those windows that look down on the sidewalk? I tell you it was the nuttiest thing we ever did!"

"Well — we've got her ..."

"For a while — but I'd give money if she was stowed away somewhere besides in this car."

"She will be pretty soon. Don't get nervous, duchess. The boss was saying once you had nerves of steel."

"I know," the lady assented, bridling pleasantly. "I can take a chance with most of them. But — my God — there was a cop right on the corner while you was still giving her the rope and the gag ..."

"He saw not a damned thing. Mike switched over to the other curb as if he was going to park."

"Yeah — I guess it's all right ..."

"Damned right it's all right — a neat job!"

It may be inferred that our sprightly if somewhat worried friends arrived safely at whatever was their destination — and that they still had with them at that point their unseen passenger. For a startled husband, after a night of wonder and nascent dismay, received on the following day a letter couched as follows:

"Mr. Daniel Reed:

"Sir:

"Your wife is all right. She's in good hands. We figured a little change wouldn't do her any harm — and a lot of change won't hurt us a bit. Without looking her over very much — for we like to consider a lady's feelings — we size her up as worth a hundred grand of anybody's money. She's a bargain at this figure — and we wouldn't feel we could let her go at this sum if times weren't so hard. If you are in the market for her just run a little ad in the Times like this: 'B.L.G. — sorry to have missed you.' We will get in touch with you by phone. "Yours,

"B.L.G."

Turning to his solicitous secretary, the financier cast the ill omened epistle an the desk and strode about the office to which the letter had been directed.

"Great God!" he raved. "A hundred thousand dollars — Helen — a hundred thousand!"

"What is it, Mr. Reed?" inquired Perry Allen anxiously.

"Read the letter," he choked. "Read it — my wife didn't come home last night — I thought she might have had a little accident — perhaps fainted — been taken somewhere — or maybe gone to some friend's house in a miff — though we haven't quarreled really ..."

"Heavens — this sounds bad!"

"Bad — bad!" It sounds hellish!" raved the wizened financier. "A hundred thousand — where are the cops that cost us so much — how did they get her!"

"Snatched her, I expect. The streets are pitfalls for the unwary," said the concerned secretary gravely. "Why not call in the police?"

"The blundering police! I've heard of awful things happening in cases like this — when the abductors found the cops were after them!"

"Weil — you might wait a day or so — for further communications. Though' it is detestable to think of a lady for whom I have acquired such respect imprisoned by persons who must be of the lowest order."

"Maybe I can bargain with them — good Lord — a hundred thousand! Do they think I'm made of money!"

"Of course the fiends must know of your standing — and how dear your wife is to you."

"Naturally she's dear to me — and naturally I've got to have her back. But they've got to be reasonable. Where would I get a hundred thousand?"

"I suppose it would be difficult," remarked the secretary softly.

But his employer flushed more deeply as he met the dark blue eyes of the young man who knew so much about his resources and his affairs.

"Of course I could raise it," he mumbled. "But it's more money than I've made in the last six months. And anyhow," he rasped suddenly, overcome by his wrongs — "anyhow why should I have to fat up a bunch of slimy crooks with a fortune?

"Is there no protection for life and property and freedom — right here in this big city. I've a notion to let 'em sweat — they won't dare hurt her. And I swear to God — if they get any money out of me at last — I'll cut loose then to run 'em down and jail every last one of 'em! Yes — even if it costs me more money."

Mechanically the distressed secretary had been running through the remainder of the morning mail.

"Another type written note," he said now. "Perhaps from the same criminals."

The financier tore open the envelope. He read aloud tremulously:

"A word which I carelessly omitted. It will not be pleasant for the charming Mrs. Reed if we discover that you have been inconsiderate enough to call in the cops. In that case we might forget to be gentlemanly with the at present much respected lady. Regretting that we are forced to ask that you pare off for us a shred of your assets, we remain ..."

"Great Scott, Allen — what do you suppose they might do to Mrs. Reed?" wailed the man, wrinkling his brow.

"I have no clear notion of course. It occurs to me, however, that these notes are couched in unusual language for a crook. If the writer is the leader of the gang, which seems probable, one would think he might be a restraining influence to prevent the lady from suffering — er — violences or extreme discomfitures."

"Oh — if only I dared call in the police!"

"I believe such procedure almost always results unfortunately. Such a gang has a thousand eyes, it appears — and they know every move of the victim who is to be plucked. Or so I have understood."

"But you advised it at first ..."

"Thoughtlessly — in my immense concern for the welfare of Mrs. Reed and of your purse. The kidnapping of a lady is a rare event, I believe — though some such cases have been reported. I once had access to the confidential files of a private sleuthing agency. I recall a few details.

"Such as?"

"Well — you must not be too shocked or apprehensive — for these other rascals were of much lower type than this present monster appears to be. In one case, I recall, the disconsolate husband received all the hair of his wife's body except that from her head.

"The hair had been shaven from the unfortunate woman's lower abdomen and armpits — and it was sent to the spouse wrapped in her dainty chemise to startle him the more. Of course the idea was to horrify him by revealing that his unhappy young spouse had been stripped naked by coarse males and thus disgracefully treated — with the implied warning that the next step would be her viola-ion."

"Great God — imagine — Helen — my lovely wife — being thus insulted!"

"These foul marauders may do anything of the kind — though even that would be better than having them send you one of her toes."

"Heavens on earth — I should say so!"

"But the man stood pat. He was already in touch with the kidnappers and bargaining with them. He finally arranged to get the lady back for twenty-five thousand instead of the fifty they had asked."

"Saved twenty-five thousand, eh? Well ..."

Daniel Reed stroked his beardless chin and reflected.

"Of course it was tough on his wife," mused Allen aloud. "If he had sent quickly the entire sum demanded, she would doubtless have been spared the indescribable humiliation of struggling vainly in her total nudity in the hands of her captors and emerging with bald genitals."

The financier snorted.

"Yet he saved a lot by waiting," he reasoned. "Naturally he didn't like having that done to his wife. But if she was a sensible woman she was doubtless glad that he had waited — and thereby saved a great sum. After all — the hair would grow again — and she would forget after a while the shock to her modesty."

"Probably," assented Perry Allen. "Yes — since she was her husband's heir, she may have looked at the matter in that way. I have some reason to believe — from letters unwarily included in those secret files — that a member of the agency firm was pretty intimately involved in the transaction from the start."

"Ha — blackguards! I was thinking vaguely of consulting some private agency — but they are largely composed of scoundrels — and their rates are high."

"One man had a rather bad time," murmured the secretary. "The papers on this case were in those files also. His late wife's young sister — who lived with him and looked after his two small children — had been abducted. He paid the demanded ransom quickly — on word from the knaves that she had not been injured nor affronted in the least. When he recovered her he discovered from her quivering lips that she had been staked out on a bed every night of her absence — and had been forced to serve the foul pleasures of a group of three men."

"Great Scott — what did he do?"

"Do ... ? He could do nothing. The chances are that he ceased almost immediately to fume and rage over the matter. For the disconsolate and shamed and brutalized girl — who had been a maiden when she was stolen — turned out now to be a nervously excitable nymphomaniac — made so by her treatment.

"A partner in the agency had filed a private notation — perhaps for blackmailing purposes — to the effect that he had learned that the brother-in-law who had paid her ransom took her to his bed and ravaged her with gusto and glee upon her return.

"He made thereafter a practice of using her in this manner — perhaps excusing himself on the ground that the girl would have run wild through the neighborhood if he hadn't kept her desires assuaged."

"Got his money's worth — heh?" observed the staring Daniel. "Or maybe part of it anyway."

And then a horrible thought appeared to strike him.

"Great guns!" he wailed. "Suppose these rascals should try to force my Helen to — give way!"

"I should think the polite devil who writes you would be likely to prevent that unspeakable outrage," remarked the secretary demurely. "He has probably got a woman in charge of her. As I understand it, curs like these try to avoid arousing an aftermath of rage and dogged vengeance as far as possible. All they want is to have the matter allowed to die away after they have gotten their money."

"If they get money out of me I'll never let it die down," affirmed Daniel wrathfully. "Money comes too hard — I'll be on their trail with the best men I can get."

"Quite naturally. Expensive, of course — but you could hardly be expected to remain idle — even if it takes a year or more and many thousands of dollars ..."

"Ha — thousands, eh — and on top of the ransom!"

"Of course these expert private dicks are costly — and they will pad expense accounts — and turn in bills for full weeks when they really did nothing."

"Huh — well — it will be time to consider that when my wife has been returned."

"There is always the consideration that she might not wish the scandal which might creep out in case the thugs were continuously trailed ..."

"Yes — that's a fact. I hope they won't — insult her grossly — while negotiations are going on," observed the financier nervously.

"I think perhaps — in the case I just mentioned — that it was the — excuse me — virginity of the girl which roused the beast in the three abductors. Of course — in the case of a wife — well — that consideration would hardly arise."

Reed turned a slow red and eyed his secretary narrowly.

"Do you suppose — they'd search a girl — a young lady — for evidences of — er ... ?" he asked lamely.

"I can hardly conceive of that effrontery," murmured the younger man. "Of course such fellows have no standards of decency."

"That I would never forgive!" blustered Daniel. "If they were to find out — I mean if they dared explore her person — I should feel as humiliated as she!"

"I think — forgive me again — that they would take for granted that the delicate body of Mrs. Reed had been — er — opened. Though, to be sure, she looks virginal — like a sunny haired lass — a schoolgirl."

His employer's dull eyes lighted briefly.

"Doesn't she? You've no idea!" he began — and then checked himself.

"And sometimes," breathed the other, watching the man keenly, "sometimes — when she smiled and dimpled — almost like a baby. One thinks of breasts for her — of diapers," he added boldly but softly.

"Rather, perhaps, of short open drawers — of recent — growths ..." stammered the husband of the lady in question — so bemused now by the reflections engendered within him that he was oblivious to the temerity of his secretary and to his own indecency in conversing thus about her.

"I should say," murmured Allen gently, "that, setting aside all the affection which she naturally arouses, such a sweet girl would be utterly irreplaceable — as a — companion."

"One could search a lifetime — indeed, I did so — for a loveliness willing to — ah — love and be loved as Helen does!" whispered Daniel huskily. "I must get her back — I must — I want her — I shall want her tonight!"

"Calm yourself, dear Mr. Reed — and be sure of my sympathy — and such aid as I can render," said Allen more sedately. "Doubtless you will have a telephone call or some other communication immediately upon the printing of that ad tomorrow."

"I'll send it to the newspaper offices at once."

"And maybe you can arrange for swift return — even as early as tomorrow."

"That would mean giving in — paying the whole hundred thousand," the man pointed out. "I believe the asking price in these crimes can almost always be battered down. I'll plead poverty."

"The danger there is that they probably know your circumstances. They are always thorough, these desperados."

"Well — if I keep them on a string for a few days — I might save a lot."

"Provided your wife is comfortable — and not too fearfully worried."

"I guess she's all right. Thinking it over, I feel sure they wouldn't dare to touch her."

"Of course you will pine to feel her safely by your side again — in bed," the younger man dared to say.

"Yes — yes — but I must be strong — there's much money to be saved. In bed — yes — oh — cuddling — yes — little nighty off — ah — you've no idea how she ..."

"Looks?"

"Feels — quite bare — a dainty child — petting and being petted — oh God — soft, warm legs — little belly — ah — ah!'"

"I can understand — faintly — I believe."

"Fingers — fingers — ah — make a man of you — make a hot lass of her — oh!"

"You'll need self-control, Mr. Reed, if you'll allow me to suggest it — especially if you have made up your mind to negotiate for a time."

Chapter XXII

"No — no — I didn't go to the police," called Daniel Reed frantically into the desk phone a couple of days later.

He listened for a time — while his handsome secretary gnawed his crisp moustache and smiled unseen.

"All right then — since you know — I did just consult them," admitted the financier. "What's that? Dangerous, you say — never see her again? Heavens — don't do that! What's that?"

He listened again for a full minute.

"I'll call them right off," he promised agitatedly. "No — I'll deal directly with you from now on. What's that — a man wants to buy her — to take her far away! Oh — no — you'd lose money — for I'll come across — with what I can afford.

"No — I have no notion of trying to trace this call. I'll have a letter tomorrow — one from her, too? All right — good bye."

Aghast, he turned to the sympathetic Allen.

"Was it the same party who rang you yesterday?" asked the latter anxiously.

"No — a woman this time. Yesterday — while you were out at lunch — it was a man — with a sort of high pitched but smooth voice. This woman is more vulgar. She had the foul nerve to tell me that they had ways of cashing in on Helen which were wholly independent of my purse.

"I told that scoundrel yesterday that all I could possibly raise was twenty-five thousand — and I wanted to know how I could be certain she wouldn't be — harmed. They are sore about my offer — and sorer because I went to see the police.

"I believe I didn't tell you about that — but I did go. I thought there was an outside chance, after all, that they might get her back without my having to spend a lot of money. How they found it out I can't imagine."

"Frankly, it was a damned imprudent thing to do!" observed Allen. "These things have to be handled very delicately — especially when there is a tender hostage in the hands of the crooks."

"I guess you're right. This woman said they would not communicate by phone any more. There's to be a letter of instructions — containing their final terms — and a letter from Helen tomorrow."

"Better tell the cops it was a mistake — that your wife had gone off home, in a tiff, to her parents."

"I'll do that on the way back to Westchester this evening."

Two letters arrived in a single enclosure on the day following. One stated briefly that seventy-five thousand — no less — would be accepted for the safe return of Mrs. Reed. It prescribed a stroll, unaccompanied, across a Hudson River bridge just after dawn two mornings subsequent to date — the money to be in a package of assorted bills and to be handed to a youth who would accost Mr. Reed somewhere upon his walk and request a light for a cigarette in certain terms.

Thereupon, returning, the man would find his lost spouse at the New York end of the bridge. If there were other wayfarers — an improbable contingency at that hour — Reed was to loiter and gaze at the river until they had passed out of sight.

The letter in Helen's handwriting was clearly designed to jolt him into speedy acquiescence.

"You will comprehend, Daniel, that this letter will be read by others before it is sent," she wrote. "That will affect freedom of writing in some respects — though not in sincerity. It is certain that my captors mean business and are impatient of delay or haggling.

"I am in good health — and well treated in general — though I have suffered keen embarrassments as the result of what I understand to have been your minor offer of a ransom when first the man who seems in charge communicated with you.

"I am permitted to tell you what happened to me as the outcome of that — possibly because they wish to startle you into a cessation of bargaining. I was stripped to the skin by two women — shown in this state to male members of the band in my tiny but comfortable prison chamber.

"The men were permitted to eye and handle me odiously — and — oh, Daniel — they discovered then that I was what one of the woman called 'a wife in name only!' That it what happened to me! And can you imagine my feelings — I, who had never let even you see me thus!

"How they did joke — horridly — at me then. Their eagerness to toy with my body everywhere increased vilely — and I had to submit. And almost the worst was that — with the knowledge that I was still a maiden to go upon — they forced me to go on and narrate my actual physical relations with you.

"They pumped me fearfully — and I was too confused to conceal the facts — especially because they had allowed me to infer that if I told all our marital secrets frankly I would be allowed to put on my clothes and escape these defaming insults.

"But, instead of that, I suffered worse. For every person there — four men and two women — insisted upon putting a finger into me in order to touch the membrane and be sure it still existed. Daniel — I went nearly crazy!

"Then I was released — but with threats that gave me to understand that this maidenhead would not long be spared unless you 'came across' — as the men put it. And now I am bidden — under threats that if I decline I shall have to sit, nude, on the lap of the huskiest of the men as I write and suffer myself to be penetrated unspeakably — oh — in the rear, Daniel — to recall to you our tenderest moments — the moments when I was just a naked and shamed child in your arms — under the covers.

"I can almost feel your soft, fluttering hands now — touching my titties, my belly, my thighs — hovering, while I held my breath, above my bare crotch — then touching the hair — finding the slit — caressing it — oh!

"And then — holding me like a child — making me suck your nipples — and — drawing my shaking fingers to your stiffening prick! You see — I am frank — they, my captors, demand it.

"I get wet — in front — as I write. If you ever thought I didn't appreciate the delicate caresses which spared my virginity — dismiss the thought now. A pretty lady of about thirty notes my flush and my trembling. She touches me between the legs; — oh — I am vibrating so I can hardly write at all!

"And then — fingering you off — while you did the like to me! Oh — I'm spending — I ... !

"There — I'm calmer now — for she jerked me off — the pretty lady. I am thankful that at least the men are out of the room as I write — for it would have been even more terrible to have been treated with such contumely by one of them.

"It is unspeakable to have to write to you so crudely — so vulgarly — but I am forced to do it. It appears to be reasoned by my custodians that moral torments for me — violations of the most elementary decency imposed upon me — will perhaps be fully as effective in persuading you to hurry and give them what they want as would be all your knowledge that I was suffering physically.

"It is too bad that you should be asked to part with a considerable sum to effect my safe return. And ...

"Oh — this pretty woman of thirty — who has so refined and sweet a face that you would swear her incapable of any grossness whatever — has just told me that I must write clearly to you what I will do to console you for spending so much money to recover me.

"Oh — it is terrible beyond words to write! But — Daniel — husband, father, nurse — when I am with you again you may strip me entirely naked in the clear light if you wish. I will not again be recalcitrant about that. I will kneel down and open your trousers in front — and ...

"Oh God — these two ladies tell me now of more which I must promise you. I am glad you cannot see my face as I am forced to write such infamies.

"Daniel — I am told to write that I will kiss your nice prick very gently and tenderly after I have taken it from your trousers. I will do it, too, Daniel — yes — I will kiss it and finger it until it is quite hard and long.

"One of the ladies says I must promise you to call you 'nursie' then — to pretend that I am your baby and that this thing between your hairy legs is a teat — to — oh, my God — to take its tip into my mouth and ... ! But — oh, Daniel — you will not ask that — will you?

"Will you not be satisfied — and quite happy — if I sit on one of your knees quite nude — and — while you make me spend with your naughty finger — I rub you gently until you spend?

"I have been scolded here for being still a virgin. But do not worry — I think I shall be allowed to remain this way. Yes — I think you will have back the maiden you love to fondle and to regard as still the little girl which she is in many ways.

"Of course — if these negotiations are prolonged so far as to try my captors' patience — then I do not know what will happen to me. But I have a certain protection — in spite of the shame I have had to endure.

"For this very sweet lady — the older one with the bronze hair — says quite openly that she is in love with me. Can you fancy that — a lady in love with a girl! It sounds too silly — yet she sometimes acts as if she really was — infatuated.

"Perhaps I shall be with you inside of two days — or three. And then I will make good on all my promises — and more. I will wear either no drawers at all — or will wear the little open ones into which you love to put your hand when I am on your lap.

"You shall have me naked whenever you like — and you shall do whatever you wish with me — and I will do whatever you tell me to do. But if you do not get me back as soon as that I shall doubtless be allowed — compelled — to write to you again.

"You must forgive the gross parts of this letter — for they were prescribed to me — though I really mean them now, dear Daniel."

"Forty thousand fiends of hell!" burst forth the financier as he reached the passages telling of his wife's nudity and humiliation in presence of men of the band and of the discovery of his own failure to make a woman of the blonde beauty.

He trembled with rage as he learned that these bandits had drawn from the lips of Helen all the soft abnormalities of her marital life. He quivered — under the interested eyes of his secretary — with an excitement which was not all fury as he read of male and feminine fingers forced lasciviously into the virginal body of his spouse.

And, nearing the close of the letter, he read with bulging eyes and shaking hands the amazing pledges of wifely dutifulness upon her return — pledges so torrid and so wanton in their nature and wording that he read them again incredulously.

Writhing in his chair and breathing heavily, he dropped the letter upon his desk.

"They've made her write — you wouldn't believe!" he gasped.

"Shall I read?" queried Allen deferentially.

Staring vacantly upon pictures which whirled in clouds about his head, the older man nodded absently.

Rapidly Allen ran through the remarkable epistle — an epistle of which he himself had enjoined the writing but whose terms he had entrusted to his subordinates and to the lovely captive herself. There was a gravely shocked expression on his face as he laid the letter down.

"The dear lady is, I fear," he remarked quietly, "in the clutches of a libidinous crew — but perhaps not treacherous. One seems to perceive an atmosphere of ..."

"Heavens — and earth — you read!" cried his employer huskily — just then realizing all that he had laid before the eyes of this young man.

"Certainly — you asked it," responded the other in a tone of wounded surprise. "Of course I have no wish to."

"Lord God — must the whole city, then, know the secrets of our chamber?"

"Calm yourself, sir. There is no reason for shame or distress. Such delicate marital relations as this letter reveals — relations which leave the sensitive, delicious virginity intact and cherished — do you both great honor as compared with the ribald grossnesses which hide behind the walls of many a boudoir and chamber."

"They'll corrupt her — my girl-wife — whose naive and innocent sensuousness — I've guarded and enjoyed. See how they have handled her — examined her — this crew of lechers of both sexes. And see how she writes — she — who couldn't hear the least off color word without blushing furiously."

"It may all have been dictated — possibly with a lash held over her bare, white back."

"No — she emphasizes the lack of physical maltreatment — except for odious handlings. Besides — I tell you that there is the spirit of Helen herself behind all these uncanny phrases."

"In that case you are a very fortunate man. When I think of that golden haired, gray-eyed little lady cuddling, naked, at your feet — doing what she promises to you — and then on your lap — in a mutual ecstasy!"

"Don't think of it!" groaned his employer.

"I can't help — picturing her thus."

"Furies of hell! All right — picture her as you like! I tell you this letter drives me almost out of my head!"

"Naturally, I am none too calm myself. Still we know nothing of the way they captured her."

"No — but for three successive days she visited a woman osteopath on Sixty-eighth street late in the afternoon — a bit of indigestion caused by nerves — though her nerves used to be perfectly healthy. The brigands must have been watching her."

"Possibly we shall hear — she may be allowed to give details if she writes again."

"I shall watch her like a hawk when I get her back. I can't be always paying out money to regain her liberty. She shall even come to the office with me for a while during the daytime."

"Ah ... ?"

"Yes — how I wish she was here now! That letter has made me feel very — shaky. I should take her on my knees and ..."

"Yes?"

"Cuddle her — oh — oh — she would slip her little hand — inside — and I ... !"

"How I'd like to see — I should be the kindly, intimate friend — in whose presence there was no need of the least constraint."

"No doubt — no doubt, but you'd see nothing — except that each of us had lost a hand from view. Yet — you would see her lovely face turn slowly rosy — scarlet — crimson. Her lashes would flutter over her half closed eyes. Her head would fall weakly on my shoulder. She would stiffen suddenly — cry out gutturally — and then shiver from head to foot for a moment."

"And you?"

"Don't ask me — she would never cease to squeeze, to rub delicately. I should be beside myself!"

"A treasure beyond words is Mrs. Reed! No wonder you are prepared to go the limit to get her back right speedily."

"The limit? Well — of course I've got to rescue her — to get her back. But — you see I've already saved twenty-five thousand by holding back. Perhaps I can clip that much more off their demands."

"Meanwhile — she's in some danger."

"You yourself said you didn't believe the band treacherous."

"No — but brutish as far as the male contingent is concerned — infernally lecherous in its womankind. And it is impossible to overlook the constant temptation for such creatures of having a nugget of sheer loveliness like your young young girl in their clutches."

"Yet — if two or three days more of endurance would save a great sum ..."

"The responsibility is all yours."

"I believe I shall try the scheme of wrapping a few large bills about some green and yellow paper — tying it neatly — going to that bridge tomorrow morning as this last communication bade me."

"With a band so organized as this appears to be, you are probably watched constantly. They would know whether you had drawn heavily from a bank or not. They are up to all the dodges no doubt. And be certain, too, that both ends of that bridge would be carefully watched for indications of treachery on your part."

At nine on the following morning Daniel Reed reached his office — to find his secretary ahead of him.

The financier was flushed and still shaken.

"A stripling in shabby clothes and with a low vizored cap slouched up tome," he groaned. "He said: 'how about a light, mister — ?' There was no one else about. I gave him the package. He opened it — as I had expected. He peeled off the bills and handed them to me with a flourish of mockery. He tossed the rest of the bundle over the side of the bridge-; — and went on his way."

"A tough break!" said Allen sympathetically. "I do hope the episode won't rebound to the discomfort of Mrs. Reed. We can only wait now for further developments."

A letter arrived at Reed's office late that same day. The communication was solely from Helen this time.

"I have been tugged from bed to write this," she wrote. "It is only seven o'clock. Two grumbling men and the bronze haired lady came. They are with me yet. I had to take my bath — and even piddle — with them all watching me. It was fearful, Daniel!

"Then — still without a stitch to cover me — I was pushed over the lap of the lady — face downward. She had raised her clothes — she gripped me with her bare thighs. She let the men paddle me — one devoting his attention to each buttock. I suffered agonies of shame — not so much of pain — but soon I began to exclaim and to squirm and to plead.

"I heard the woman pant and sigh — and when I paused in my motions I found that she was still rubbing her opened crotch upon my thigh and hip shamelessly. You see — my own motions and the contact had excited her unspeakably.

"She had the men spank me more now — impatient of my shamed immobility. She did not even mind that they laughed coarsely at her lecherous heat and wrigglings. She said that my bare behind formed two great roses now.

"She insisted that the men should kiss them — and then that they should lift me, turn me over and rub my hot buttocks right upon her — oh — she said cunt — and I have got to write it! Yes — she wanted to feel the heat and softness of my belabored bottom, she said — and the men rubbed me between her widely parted legs — while they viewed me lasciviously in front.

"I was in a delirium of mystified shame over all these unprecedented inflictions. She spent then, Daniel! I had to finish her off with a finger when she found that my bottom wouldn't suffice.

"And then and not till then was I informed of the reason for my punishment and for my horrid shaming. It seems that you had made what they called a clumsy attempt to delude them. And now they charge me to tell you that it will be a hundred thousand after all! Oh — I do not think I am worth so much — yet you must get me away somehow!

"Both tomorrow morning and the morning following they will have a messenger prepared to carry out the arrangement — whatever it is — for they are not certain you will get this in time for tomorrow's meeting.

"I didn't tell you how they got me. Well — I am allowed to do so now. I was snatched on Sixty-eighth Street. It is all a sort of mist to me — but I found myself tied in a sort of packet — lying, gagged, on the floor of an automobile with feet all around me — a man's and a woman's.

"They talked in low voices. I could feel the car going very swiftly after a while. The woman — she is really only a girl, not much older than I — shifted her feet uneasily. A high heel hit my stomach. I groaned faintly.

"I heard her say something about her feet being uneasy in those new shoes — and that she wished she had a cushion.

" 'I have, too — ' she said. 'Come to think of it, I have a very soft, dandy cushion — '

"There was no lap-robe over us. I saw her, as I twisted my head, calmly remove both shoes and stockings — regardless of the interested eyes of the middle-aged man upon her fine legs. She rested the unclad feet upon my body with a sigh of relief and pleasure. They were very dainty feet — pretty and soft and pink.

"Distressed and frightened though I was, I felt embarrassed to be so calmly used like this. But — heavens — that turned out to be nothing! For she kept shifting her bare feet upon me — on my bosom, thighs, belly. She spoke at last of her feet being chilly — and coolly she burrowed them under my skirt.

"Daniel, that was — confusing beyond words! I hope you will never wish to do such a thing to me. For she rubbed and warmed her feet on my naked thighs. Then she advanced them — upward — burrowing with her toes.

"I — heavens, Daniel — you can't understand how I felt! She saw my flushed face — and my imploring eyes looking upward at her above the gag. She chuckled — softly and, finding the combination in her way, she deliberately bent and extended a hand under my skirt to unbutton it between my legs.

"Then, quite cosily and with a sort of gratification which I could not fail to know to be licentious, she took possession of all my nude body with her little feet. She kept chattering so to the man that I do not yet know whether he surmised what was going on at the time.

"But she prodded me with her toes between the thighs until I was forced to part them. She drove me wild with those toes — one foot after the other — gazing down at my reddened face and my twisting body every little while with a sensual grimace of satisfaction.

"Sometimes a foot would be resting on my bare belly while its mate heightened my inescapable frenzy below. I could not even raise a muffled voice through the gag in protest or pleading.

"Involuntarily I writhed like a landed fish — and a low moan escaped stranglingly through my gag. I heard the man say:

" 'What's the matter — what the hell are you doing to the girl — ?'

"'Mind your own business — !' she said pertly. If I want to warm my feet on my girl friend here I guess it's my privilege — "

" 'Yeah — well,- I begin to have an idea how you are wanning them — and her,' he muttered. 'Girls are the damndest things — ! Don't let the boss know about it, though, I advise you — for you know he is fussy about this young trout we've taken — '

" 'If I hurt her you'll know it — ' she replied. "And, Daniel, she deliberately set to work now to make me spend! Oh, my God — fancy — bound and helpless-toes that seemed like pliant little stiff sexes!

"Well — I came — profusely — how could I help it! I was moaning audibly and thrashing about on the bottom of that car — but I could not escape the indefatigable, lecherous toes of the amused, licentious girl who watched me with eyes that glittered.

"She bent low as I was upon the eve of the emission. " 'I'd suck you, baby — !' she whispered. 'If I had you where I want you I'd suck you till you squealed with joy — !'

"'Jeez — as I thought — she's spending — !' cried the man. 'What did you say to her — ?'

" 'None of your damned business — !' she said coolly as she raised her head. 'It's a secret between her and me — '" "That damned brat, the Duchess!" grunted Perry Allen under his breath as he heard this read aloud.

"What did you say?" queried his employer glancing up from the letter.

"Nothing — just moved by the shame of your lovely wife," answered the younger man suavely. "A horrid mortification — though I suppose it didn't really do her any harm. Of course they made her write all these facts — without recalling that I — I mean, anyone except yourself — might learn of them."

"Lord — girls seem to do extraordinary things!" remarked Reed. "Fancy — a bronze haired woman of thirty in love with Helen — and a girl jerking her off with her naked toes!"

Chapter XXIII

The aging man was flushed unaccountably — in a way for which wrath and indignation failed to account — or so thought the acute eyed Perry. Was it possible that the man was beginning to react sensually to the accounts of the lustful indignities forced upon his young spouse?

The secretary probed gently — eager to discover whether it was just an innate interest in the thinly disguised lesbianism to which Helen was being subjected that moved his senses — or whether there might be some deeper vein of perversion touched by the fate of his cherished wife.

"Imagine that girl — saying she wished to suck Mrs. Reed!" murmured Allen. "What an idea — what a perfectly vicious notion! Her mouth between your wife's legs — I suppose that is what she meant."

"Yes — of course Helen is very lovely — like a rosy lily," said Reed dreamily. "One can understand — a perverse girl being moved. My wife's slit must be very sweet to gaze upon — though this girl hadn't seen it — and, as these letters may have revealed to you, neither have I myself."

"You will see it, you know — she has promised to have no further reservations from you," Allen reminded the man softly. "Do you not think it would be a pretty picture — if one chanced to come upon a young girl with her face between the naked legs of — well — such a sweetness as your Helen — licking her bare little slit?"

"Yes — oh, yes!" breathed the older man. "And imagine that hoyden in the car — using her toes on the poor helpless child — until she came! Ah, ah — I begin to fathom that there are many ways to make that sweet child spend — and if you should ever see her spend, Allen, you would never forget it!

"Oh — oh — pallid with agitation and writhing furiously — then flushed to the hair — rolling, tossing, sighing — a thing of beauty, a little, hurricane!"

"I'd love above all things to witness it — though it would be much more heavenly to have caused it. I wish I could ..."

"Don't talk so about my wife!"

"It was you who made me see the vision. I have only the greatest respect for Mrs. Reed, you may be sure."

"To be sure. I am nervous, overwrought — as who wouldn't be — reading in Helen's handwriting that men denude her freely — watch her bathe and — sit oh the toilet! Ah — God — smack her soft buttocks — she speaks as if it heated her in spite of her fearful mortification.

"Then — using her tender young body to pollute this bronze haired hussy. Oh — I've just had a fearful thought, Allen! What if the brutal crew get my innocent dear so accustomed to outrages which stir her senses tremendously — for she can't help having fiery senses, poor child.

"That the delicate pastimes to which I have trained her lose all their savour for her? What if all these strong, terrible meats should ruin her for my arms? Ah — ah — and they may even — violate her!"

"Yes — there is that chance, I must admit — though, as I say, I have a notion they would halt at that. But I shouldn't worry too greatly. Has it ever occurred to you that a lady is far more likely to be constantly amorous than is a maiden?

"I fancy that if your Helen should be made a woman she would enjoy all the more deliciously what you call the delicate things you do to her."

"You think so? Perhaps — yet I reel at the thought of her coming back to me deflowered. I have so cherished her dainty girlhood. It is — oh, oh — my most prized possession — you wouldn't understand."

"I think I do."

"And there is the danger that — if I should open her up — or if these brutes who hold her captive should do so — she would so lose self-control, in her awakened desires, that some man besides myself might be able to tempt her ..."

"Again, I shouldn't fret. I must admit — if you will pardon me — since we are upon this delicate topic — that I have been surprised to learn, from yourself as well as from these letters, that you have never actually consummated this marriage."

"No — there were reasons. For one thing — well — I've revelled in keeping her a child — -a child whom it is pleasant to pet."

"Indecently," breathed his companion.

"Yes — indecently if you like — why not acknowledge it, since you already know. And to know, too, that it was the hand of a virgin that was upon me reciprocally. Then, too — I have a certain distrust of my virility.

"It gets hard and flaming when Helen caresses it — and I enjoy like the damned when she — causes me to spend. But — if it came to the effort to enter her — I don't know. I have had in the past — before our marriage — some lamentable experiences in the effort to copulate.

"There was a stenographer — she was willing — lay down for me — and then — I couldn't. It wilted when I tried. And she laughed — the hussy laughed!"

"You have a nervous complex — partly derived from that episode. You are probably virile — under the right circumstances."

"I have preferred not to try with Helen — especially since I think I never in my life enjoyed the full blown favors of a woman nearly as much as the delicious practices in which I have indulged with my wife. I had a wife earlier in life. She was a log — I quit even bothering to take her."

"You lost interest in the usual pleasures of the flesh, I suppose."

"I think they never appealed to me mightily. I kept dreaming of young girls though — girls who hardly knew what it was all about — but who trembled with delight when intimately caressed — who could be taught to reciprocate.

"I found Helen. She is hot blooded — yet hardly knows it. I shudder at thought of the enlightenment she is receiving now — and may receive ..."

"She is, you know, entitled to more — to a fuller carnal life."

Reed stirred uncomfortably.

"She has never complained," he muttered.

"After your unpleasant experience with the boy on the bridge — and after this new and dismaying letter from your wife — shall you pay the ransom at once?"

"I — good God — they've raised it to a hundred thousand again! Oh — if only I hadn't tried that fake package of money! What do you suggest?"

"It's difficult to suggest a course — except that of compliance."

"A hundred thousand — great heavens — I'll not pay!"

"There will doubtless be other communications."

"Over the phone that woman spoke of selling her — having her taken far away."

"A bluff almost certainly — designed to frighten you into shelling out."

"If I can save half the great sum demanded by leaving Helen where she is for a day or two more — how easy a way to make fifty thousand!"

"At her expense."

"She would be glad to suffer a little in pride and modesty in order to save this amount for me."

"You can endure to think of her bandied about naked — by men as well as women."

"It grates on me — I am moved — horribly!"

"But it grates on you worse to think of parting with the full sum asked?"

"There's the phone ..."

The financier listened to his unseen communicant for some two or three minutes — with gurgled monosyllabic replies on his part. His face was brick red when at last he jammed the receiver on its hook.

"The bastard!" he raved.

"Who was it — the woman again?" asked Perry.

"No — a man — a man with a husky voice and with a poor mastery of grammar. He told me that my wife was quite well — that she was sitting on his knee as he talked to me. He said she was glad I couldn't see her — because she had nothing on but a pair of stockings — and she would have been very embarrassed to have my eyes upon her.

"He went on, the cur, to describe her to me as she appeared then — said her fine breasts just filled his hands when he took them. He spoke of a tiny brown mole just above her golden pussy — of the white, round thighs above tan silk stockings.

"He said — oh, my God — that he would take a look at her — cunt — and let me know at once whether it seemed in prime condition. He told me to hold the phone. I heard gasps and smothered ejaculations in Helen's voice. Then a slap or two rang out. She wailed softly.

"He spoke again. He said he was sorry to have been obliged to slap my dear wife's arse a few times in order to subdue her reluctance to having me learn so much about her physique. He said she was now lying over his knees on her back — and parting her pretty legs nicely.

"He said her little slit had close-pressed borders of a faint pink hue. He said he was tempted to pet her cunt a little — if I didn't mind.

"He bade me listen. He must have raised her head until her face was near the transmitter. I heard her sigh again and again. I seemed to hear her struggling weakly. She was panting. She cried out vibratingly: 'Don't — oh, don't!'

"And the man said: 'I have a finger into her just a little way — I hope you don't mind — she loves it, the little darling — though she won't admit it. But what I really called you up about was the matter of a fuck or two for her.

" Two or three of us would like a piece of her — and we didn't like to pull it off without consulting you first — '

"All I had time to do was yell that last 'no, no!' And then the fellow hung up."

"Lord God — but still I think it's a bluff," said Perry Allen.

Chapter XXIV

On the following morning Perry Allen appeared at the Reed offices — from a mysterious abode somewhere in the city which was quite unknown to his employer — rather later than usual. He found Daniel Reed poring over two letters which had just arrived.

"They've cut it to seventy-five again," remarked the millionaire, looking up. "But only on condition that I deliver the money personally and no later than tomorrow at sunrise. This is the last word, this letter says — and the claim is made here that they have a genuine offer for Helen — from a wealthy man who has seen her.

"Her beauty and her maidenhood have fascinated him tremendously — and he will take her to some spot half across the world if he gets her. The writer says that he and his comrades feel that I have a sort of first claim to her — by God — I like that cool impudence!"

"Sounds to me like a bluff, as I have said," replied Allen doggedly.

"Well — I thought that too. But there is something in this letter from my wife that seems to bear out what they say. She writes:

"Daniel — I'm horribly scared and nervous this evening. A great fat man dressed — oh, regardless — and with huge diamonds glittering on his fingers — was just brought in to my chamber. He eyed me — oh, I can't tell you — with his little eyes.

"I thought at first I might be able to hint my plight to him and to get help from him. But he only grinned when I shrank away — and I saw that he was in the confidence more or less of the bandits who brought me here. At least it was clear that, even though knowing nothing of the circumstances or of my identity, he looked upon me as a captive — and that was enough for him.

"He spoke English with a faint foreign accent. The bronze haired woman was with him. I was fully clad — but she grabbed me as I retreated into a corner — and she asked the man whether he wished to see me undressed.

"He shook his heavy head.

" 'Not right away — ' he wheezed. 'Come here, my young beauty — come to father — '

"I have found the hopelessness of resistance in this place. I went — after the great strong woman had shaken me a couple of times. Daniel — the man gripped my arm with his left hand. He sat down on a chair which creaked under his weight. He felt of all my body outside the clothes. And then — oh — the brute spared me nothing!

"Under my skirt went that fat, lecherous hand. With animal disregard of my feelings, he fingered my naked legs above the stockings. He ran his fingers to the rear — and under my combination. He caressed and squeezed my bare buttocks.

"I was in a fearful tremor — for it had hardly been half an hour since that unspeakable telephone call to you — a call in which I was not allowed to participate except by the involuntary sounds which you must have heard.

"It was simply beyond words to lie on that man's knees while he phoned and to hear him describe to you my bare body and all that he was doing to it!

"But I was — passionate, dear — I couldn't help it. And when this fat man tore loose my combination at the crotch and grinned to the bronze haired woman that now he would discover whether I was hot enough for him — well — though I made every effort to keep from showing my feelings, I writhed and foamed as he felt my pussy and caressed my cunt so lewdly.

"Satisfied, I suppose, that I was not only excitable but excited, he felt my belly and hips then. Afterwards he arose and told the bronze haired woman — I'm not allowed to use names for any of these persons — to strip me to the skin.

"She did so — and I was long past any ability to resist. Stark naked, I had to parade before the man. He was in an ecstasy which he made no attempt to conceal — an ecstasy which might have been flattering if he had been an artist instead of a roue.

"He asked hoarsely whether I could suck. I grew pale — I couldn't speak in face of this atrocity. But the bronze haired woman replied demurely that she was certain I could be taught not only to do but to enjoy doing whatever a man wished.

"An even more horrid thing happened, Daniel. After my undergarment had been put on again, he caused it to be raised. He produced a great, terrible, stiff member — and he rubbed it upon my legs and body! Oh, my God — what a thing to have to endure!

"I am sure this man means to get possession of me, Daniel. How, I do not know — nor whither he could take me. But oh — I must be rescued right away!"

Chapter XXV

It is necessary now to antedate by two or three days the period of the reception by the beleaguered Daniel Reed of the most recently quoted letter from his vanished wife — and to reveal experiences of Helen in her captivity which had not even been touched upon in those ultra frank epistles of hers.

That she was not permitted by her captors to speak of these experiences in writing to her spouse is more than likely — but that, in any event, she would have disliked immensely to tell Daniel of these things is equally certain.

It will have been suspected long e'er now that both the forlorn husband and the licentiously persecuted Helen were under careful and personal observation all this time by no less a person than the chief of the conscienceless band responsible for the abduction of the blonde wife.

Playing his role of consoler and adviser to perfection, Perry Allen had been smitten by a sort of amused wonder to note that the agitation of Daniel Reed took on a more and more sensual tinge in face of the revelations of what his mate was undergoing while awaiting her release.

Without perhaps realizing it fully himself, the man glowed inwardly with a shameful lechery amid his wrath as he comprehended more and more fully the species of almost indiscriminate indecencies to which his captured wife was being subjected. He snatched at each new letter in which the chaste lady — probably under some form of compulsion — described to him so vividly her experiences — and he read with compressed lips and with a furtive gleam in the eyes which seldom met those of his secretary at such times.

The man seemed, too, to have lost all his former hesitancy and delicacy in making known to the supposedly ignorant Allen the innocently perverse licentiousness of the terms in which Helen wrote. He read from the letters freely to the younger man — handed them to him to read for himself — quoted from them now and again while his tongue ran upon his lips as if they were fevered and parched.

He was not averse now, either, to confiding in his secretary the most intimate reminiscences of his marital life with the girlish beauty who remained a maiden — and whatever shame he had previously felt to have this brisk, fine looking male know of the weakness of his own perversity towards Helen appeared to have vanished.

Yet he never acknowledged — if, indeed, he realized — that he was carnally stirred by his wife's accounts of such treatments as kept her almost constantly in a state of shamed and nerve-wracked licentious vibrations without ever satisfying her senses.

He spoke always in terms of shocked horror of the way in which his bride of a year — a snowy and frequently deplumaged dove in the midst of darting fangs of lust — was struggling feebly and ineffectually, and with purity constantly threatened, in the den of creatures of both sexes and who were beyond the moral pale.

Yet he could not hide from the astute Allen an odd and sensual excitement which grew upon him.

"Think of it — rubbing his prick on her — the dirty brute!" he stammered after he had read aloud to his companion that last letter. "And she with not a stitch on her — the little lamb!"

"She speaks of having been unable to avoid feeling — well — horny," whispered the secretary.

"Yes — curse it!" sighed Daniel. "Yet who shall blame her? I can't. Never has she even seen a stiff prick before as far as I know — and to have one rubbed right on her body — probably right between her legs, although she doesn't say so exactly."

"Yes — it is no impugnment of her purity that she should get fearfully wrought up by all these things that are happening to her."

"If only they will spare her virginity!" muttered the disconsolate spouse. "Do you think there is any real danger of her being turned over to this man?"

"No — that at least is all blah — I could swear to that."

"If they did," threatened Daniel, turning red, "if she suddenly became silent and I had reason to think she had been disposed of to this man, I would spend my life and my fortune in tracking them down and in getting the fat voluptuary punished."

"They are kidding him along, I guess — trying to scare Mrs. Reed also, so that her pleas to you will take on a greater anguish which may move you to swift acceptance of their terms. No doubt, though, they got money from this wealthy male for letting him do what he did with your wife — and, if hard pressed and despairing of getting what they want from you, they might even sell him her maidenhead."

"The riffraff — oh — the blackguards!"

"It will not come to that. You propose to meet them at least half way, don't you?"

"In time — but I want to save as much money as I can."

"You will not go, then, to the bridge tomorrow morning as they demand?"

"I shall — but I shall have with me fifty thousand in assorted bills instead of the seventy-five they now ask. I shall tell the young man if he meets me that that is all I can possibly raise."

"He may not be empowered to accept this reduced sum."

"Perhaps not. But that will serve to keep the negotiations open. They will see I mean business — and they will communicate further with me very promptly. I may get another letter from Helen. I mean to keep these letters, Allen.

"They affect me — peculiarly, I never had a letter from her before — just married her, with her parents' consent, and took her away. But I would have wished, I know now, to get letters similar to these from her before we were married."

"They wouldn't have affected your love — your desire for her?"

"Enhanced it, rather, I think."

"You find these letters — exciting — shall we say?"

"Don't you?"

"Naturally. In spite of my great regard and respect for your lovely wife, I cannot help being — stimulated by these narratives in her own handwriting — these tales of lust-provoking shames heaped upon her and of her own inevitable passionate reaction to them. But you — her husband — I was not certain."

"Neither was I — until almost this instant. It seems incredible that I should feel anything except rage and horror. But in reading this last letter I got — see!"

"Great God — a hard-on — looks like a beauty too!"

"Yes. I should undoubtedly be ashamed. But these stories of her miseries and her acknowledgements of the effect they have upon her — why — they affect me as if her soft hand was upon my sex. More than that — I swear I believe I could fuck her to a frazzle if I had her here now!"

"And would you?"

"By God, yes! Though I have prized her virgin state, I should have no mercy on it now!"

"Then — even if she should prove to have been violated upon her return?"

"I should grieve — no doubt...."

"But you would not reproach her — nor refuse to receive her?"

"How could I reproach her for what was not her own fault? And — as for declining to receive her — I tell you I've got to have her, man!"

"You would find her still a delicate tidbit — you would be as hot for her as ever?"

"Hotter, by God! I should cram her to the depths of her white belly in the path made easier for me by some brute I'll never see. You should feel how soft and warm and smooth is that belly of hers, Allen!"

"I'd love to!"

"You'll have to imagine it. Against mine or under my fingers it's like satin. When I see it — as she has promised — with its grove of sunny gold ..."

"Dusky gold, I should say."

"How do you know?"

"I don't of course. I — well — infer it — because of the fact that the bush is likely to be darker in hue than the hair of the head."

"When I see it I shall undoubtedly go mad! You have said that when she is a woman — if ever — she is likely to be more passionate than ever?"

"A certainty, I should say."

"Then you think she would still enjoy our delicious and mutual fingerings — would be willing to play at the game of innocent child and lecherous parent which I have devised for our pleasure?"

"I should think her likely to demand it of you at times — and much more frequently than before."

"But I'll screw her too, Allen — I swear I will!"

"Ah — fortunate man! You are certain you can do it — if he is still intact?"

"There comes that infernal doubt again. I am not sure — no — not sure I wouldn't wilt — when it came to rending a tough membrane."

"With all due respect I submit, then, that you'd better pray that she returns to you with her maidenhead destroyed."

"Ah, ah — a horrid thought!"

"She would not be changed in other respects — except perhaps for the better. And she would certainly be all the more amorous — you would have a treasure beyond compare. And you could close your eyes to the fact that what was closed before was now open.

"You need not even refer to it — unless she felt it necessary to do so of her own accord."

"You have a broad outlook, Allen. I find you of great value in my perplexities. I shall raise your salary."

"Thank you."

"Sometime in the not distant future."

"Very generous, I'm sure. There is one thing which I might do for you. I might replace you in these personal negotiations with the band — in these sunrise meetings. They must know — trailing you as they undoubtedly do — that I am your secretary. Not seeing you, they would recognize me and approach me no doubt."

"You would be willing to take fifty thousand to them tomorrow?"

"I would — but without much hope of its acceptance. The tone of that last note was firm."

"I guess I'd better go myself — although I hate it. It is not that I don't trust you, Allen — but fifty thousand is a lot of money to put into the hands of a young man who might be run down or robbed on the way. Then, too, I believe I could plead poverty more convincingly than you could."

"As you like, of course."

"No offense?"

"Not the least. It is really better that you should be personally responsible for your own money — as long as it remains yours."

It was three days before this conversation and before the reception of the letter which had given birth to it that Helen Reed, sitting at eventide in the tiny but very pleasant chamber which was her prison, was conscious, without having heard a sound, that she was no longer alone.

Looking up from her book, she turned to observe the handsome face of Perry Allen smiling down at her over her shoulder. The blonde girl gave a little start — and then she said quite composedly:

"Ah — I had an idea that I should see you here sooner or later — though I hoped not."

"An unflattering hope. I, on the contrary, am much pleased. And what made you think I might find this place where you seem to be — er — vacationing?"

"You had given me, hadn't you, plenty of atmosphere — touches from time to time of such associations with persons of an indescribable type as could not fail to recur to my mind when I found myself violently abducted — held, I suppose, for ransom?"

"Ah — you thought me, then, capable of such a crime?"

"I hadn't — but then I was forced to the conclusion — and now, of course, I know it. But I had had warnings galore. For you made hardly the least effort to conceal from me the fact that you had mingled with sinister folks.

"No longer than three days ago you were telling me — shamelessly and unapologetically — of being called 'chief or 'boss' by persons whose actions you described in terms which should have proved enlightening to me regarding the manner in which you have chosen to make a living. I suppose you are the moving power back of this conspiracy."

"Oh — conspiracy is a harsh word. Let us call it, rather, a friendly arrangement."

"Of course friendliness is at an end between you and me."

"I regret that."

"I regret it too — and am ashamed of regretting it. I hate to see you in your true light."

"As a monster — a needy monster, who must get it where and how he can — a party with a depraved taste for luxury and no inclination or ability for honest and unremunerative toil. Do you really think, Helen ... ?"

"Mrs. Reed."

"Mrs. Reed — do you think it will actually make even the most infinitesimal difference in your life and that of a husband who has already stolen plenty — oh, in legal enough ways — if he delivers a trifling part of his loot to others?"

"Quite possibly not. How much are you asking from his treasury?"

"A hundred thousand."

"I feel flattered. I think I have read of stolen bankers for whose return less than that was demanded."

"Your smallest toe is worth it."

"I thank you, Mr. Allen. Do you know — you look sheepish. I have never before seen you with the least touch of a hangdog expression."

"I shall try to correct it. It was quite involuntary — and totally unbecoming a brigand. Would it interest you at all if I were to indicate the toe which I referred to as worth a hundred grand at the prevailing prices for toes?"

"Not in the least."

"Well then — for my own pleasure ..."

"Nor does your own pleasure interest me."

"A heart that was of flesh is made stone. Have you been well treated here?"

"Just where is 'here' by the way?"

"Ah — that I am not permitted to tell ..."

"By your underlings?"

"By my own prudence and foresight. I may say that you are not so many miles from Manhattan — in a small, pleasant house rented for the occasion. You have been well treated?"

"Thanks for your belated solicitude. I have been well fed and looked after. I have been, too, a bound and almost bare cushion for a pair of very trim naked feet..."

"Masculine?"

"Feminine, I am glad to be able to say. I cannot say that I have lacked attention from the two women and the one younger female whom I have seen. I am not able even to take my bath without one or all of them being interestedly present."

"Well — you must be very lovely to look upon."

"Artistic minded ladies, eh? In the same way that you would be, Per — Mr. Allen, I very much fear. For is it necessary that they should insist upon touching me? Do you know, Perry Allen, what I have been subjected to?"

"Naturally not — I have had my secretarial duties to keep me away. I am punctilious about them."

"Have you had the infernal nerve to remain about my husband's person and business — while you had his wife cooped up?"

"I have had that pleasant privilege. What have my perhaps over exuberant friends been doing to you?"

"Well — one, two or all three of them insist on dressing or undressing me when those processes are necessary. And their handlings are beyond bounds at times. But that is not the worst. There is a lady with bronze hair ..."

"I have her clearly in mind. A splendid creature, most surely."

"Perhaps — from your standpoint. I dare not aggravate her in the least. She is peremptory — as if I were a child — and has shaken me violently when excited or rebuffed. It is she who has insisted upon massaging me from head to foot after each bath.

"She has driven me wild sometimes — with the insistent perfidy of her touches — in spots not intended to be touched."

"Surely not so disagreeable. You have been touched, have you not? Your husband?"

"Don't remind me that I ever gave you my confidence," said Helen, turning red. "Never, at least, by a woman have I been touched thus. And there is even worse — she talks insanely of 'being in love with me' — ah — how degrading not to be able to resent anything of what she does!

"She is 'in love' with me, mind you — and yet she can whirl and shake me until I gasp for breath If I am not docile. I think, too — in fact I am convinced of it — that she has shown me to peering men when I was utterly nude and being lasciviously massaged by her."

"Ah well — a treat for beauty loving men who have never seen anything half so lovely before."

"You take it coolly."

"Why rave about delicate joys gleaned by hard working men and women — joys which leave you none the less charming and healthy and sweet-natured?"

"I verily believe that if you had been here you would have permitted all this."

"I cannot say — it would have depended upon the mood. You may be certain, however, that nobody will enter or peer into this chamber tonight. Our bed looks very comfortable. I have had a hard day ..."

"Our bed! You wouldn't — you couldn't!" wailed the girl, paling.

"Certainly — our bed. It has been a long journey to it, Helen."

"You would not — force me?"

Chapter XXVI

Perry Allen raised quizzical eyebrows.

"Do you mean to tell me that you have not been seeking this bed as I have done?" he queried in seeming amazement. "Haven't you dreamed of the night that was bound to come if we were only patient?"

"Of course not — unspeakable wretch! You would not — oh, no — you wouldn't — make me!"

"But — my dear and lovely lady — we can wear night clothing if you wish to be a stickler for the proprieties."

"Can you joke about such a foul threat! Our compact too!"

"I thought that was all off. I understood you to recant even acquaintance with me ..."

"It isn't off — you have to stick to our agreement — only intimate words between us ..."

"There were — well — kisses also — if I recall the matter correctly."

"Yes — but they were not agreed upon. I just sort of — threw them in."

"Well — throw in a couple now."

"Now feeling as I do now — shaking with repulsion as I consider all your cynicism and your criminality — could you wish me to kiss you?"

"Perhaps not. You may be right. I may recall to you, nevertheless, that our agreement compassed only the place in which we then were — your own home."

"Oh, oh — but ethically it should cover any place where we may be."

"It is a dissolved compact. But we may make a new and more comprehensive alliance, Helen ..."

" 'Helen' again — oh — when you've had me stolen from my home and security — when you're planning to gouge money from my husband — you have the audacity to call me by my given name — and to suggest an 'alliance' between us!"

"Couldn't we discuss these small matters more commodiously in bed?"

"Wretch — rascal — would you force me to — sleep with you?"

"Not necessarily sleep. I proposed a discussion — but not even that is necessary. Shall I call your three willing maids — or one of them?"

"Are you threatening me?"

"No — looking after your comfort — perhaps your happiness also."

"Perry Allen — do you intend to use force upon me — you know I have never been ..."

"I know. You have not been accustomed to normal usage from a man. You have never been fucked ..."

"Your language!"

"A thousand pardons! I was forgetting that our compact permitting intimate terms had expired."

"You do not intend to take advantage of my helplessness to violate me?"

He seemed to reflect — and then shook his head slowly.

"No," he said. "That was not the way that I had pictured it, I find. Not without your torrid consent and approval could I get from you the joys I crave. No — you will not be raped."

She breathed a long sigh — of pure relief, she thought.

"Nevertheless," went on her genial tormentor, "you may recall the case of Mary of whom I told you. She would have spared herself much if she had capitulated earlier — "

The exquisite blonde turned pale.

"Are those fearful Reilleys about?" she asked tremulously.

"They are in and out of the place. One of the boys is our messenger to your husband."

"You wouldn't!"

"The family can easily be gotten together if you are curious to know them."

"Not that — oh, my God — I couldn't endure it!"

"Mary is no longer angry with them. In fact, she has been known to sneak off and give herself to them of her own accord — when she can evade Bill, her husband, who would smack her all about this house if he knew of it."

"Mary — is she here?"

"You have seen her often. They call her Ellen now — her middle name."

"Oh — Ellen?"

"That quaint, quiet, pretty girl who looks as if she had been destined for a nun — but who is very glad now that she isn't."

"But she is — heavens — the worst of the lot in' some ways. It is she who was in the car when I was stolen. And she — I haven't told you — she was viciously cruel enough to spare me nothing in that car. Her naked toes were in my bare crotch — they demanded, forced — an emission!"

"Some of the gang call her 'Duchess.' Yes — she is certainly transformed from the maiden who wished to be a novice. Go on — this is like the days when you confessed on my knees."

"I shall never be on them again. She made me spend — and even the man noticed it. I could have dropped through, the floor of the car. And she whispered terrible things to me — that she would like — with her mouth — if she Could get me alone!"

"No doubt she would suck you divinely — perhaps better than the boy, Frank, did it. She has learned to be an expert in many things in the school of the Reilleys..."

"Those unspeakable Reilleys again! Are they here — in this house — tonight?"

"No — if they were I think I should take you to their chamber for half an hour."

"Not that — oh!"

"If only to watch them. They would not mind — they are almost entirely without shame being seen. They sleep — when they do sleep — pell-mell in a single great bed — and all stark naked. There is no vice which they do not practice together — and indiscriminately."

"I could not bear even to see!"

"You do not think you would like to be thrown — as nude as themselves — into the midst of this heap of bodies? I assure you that yon would find plenty of sensations. They would be crazy over this new virgin. They would have for you delicate attentions which would make your joints crack and foam come to your lips."

"Spare me — I should die!"

"If so quite happily. But you would not die. Your heart is strong — and your nerves are rapid in recuperation of exhausted energies — as witness the day when you came to me with steady pulse — though you had just enjoyed like the damned and your little slit was still moist from the play of Frank's tongue."

"How do you know? You didn't — feel..."

"Not at that particular time."

"You are horrid!"

"I dislike to think of you as being alone in that wide bed tonight — and lonesome."

"Thank you so much! I am used to sleeping alone. I shall not miss — companionship."

"I shall see that you have it."

"Ah, God — no!"

"I do not mean my own companionship — though I should think you would like to have a robust male body to warm yourself upon."

"It is not chilly — far from it. And you would not be able — would you — to keep from — attacking me?"

"Perhaps not. I cannot imagine having self-control if I felt your silken nudity against me. Nor am I certain that you wouldn't be begging me — passionate young beauty that you are — before twenty minutes had passed to take entire advantage of the situation."

"I shouldn't!"

"It might be better even, as an excitant, than casting you to the Reilleys — more delicate but not less sure in its effect."

"Either would revolt me. I have a husband ..."

"Rather a — harmless one."

"He must find me intact."

"How would he know — with his practices?"

"I should tell him. His vengeance will be fearful. He will not rest until you are punished even as it is. The best thing you can do is to let me go right away — tonight — on my pledge never to let him know your identity."

"And flee the avenging wrath of this terrible spouse, I suppose — and without funds to speed my flight?"

"Funds — funds! Oh — when I think that it was for money that you had me filched!"

"Not entirely for money perhaps, sweet lady — though that consideration surely played its part. I saw there a hoarded reservoir of money doing no one any good except for what pleasure a middle aged Gaspard got in gloating over it.

"I need money — and so do my companions here. But I thought, too, that you needed a temporary change of scene and of regime."

"Reform, I suppose?"

"Call it that, if you like. In any event, a broadening of your horizon in some respects. By the way — I think you may be returned presently to a changed husband. There is more to this man than I had fancied — or you either perhaps.

"He can even stop thinking about money to consider whether there aren't certain delicate, perverse — or even normal — delights in life which he has overlooked. I think you must write letters to him presently."

"Ah — plead with him for money for you, I suppose?"

"That — among other things. I think you can pour juice into this carcass which is beginning to wither — torment him voluptuously..."

"I positively will not write anything indecent to my husband — especially lies!"

"No? Well, in that case, I suppose we'll have to make them truths."

"You would dare! Enough has happened to me already — more than enough. And I'll not write to him — to suit and advance your purposes."

"No? Well — I may have to consult Agatha — the bronze haired lady who so fervently admires you — and who would, had it not been for a healthy fear of me, already have made you see far horizons."

"Oh — she's terrible — talking about loving me and shaking me at the same instant! Her muscles are steel."

"And her temperament a furnace."

"She shows me to men naked — surreptitiously. I pretend not to know it. She can't — love me when she does things like that. I am afraid of her. She purrs — massages me between the legs — and — buttocks — till I can hardly keep from screaming."

"And she burns — I know her — to force your lovely face between her legs. If she should forget herself so far in a moment of greater madness you may speak to me of the matter."

"Almighty God — afterwards — what good would that do! Oh — I felt instinctively that I was in even greater danger with her than these touches and exposures!"

"I shall keep a fatherly eye upon you — since you will not allow it to be the eye of a lover. Is this your last word, Helen? You will not open the bed nicely — undress and lie on the sheet — open your arms to me?"

"Never — never!

"Ah well. It just chances that I am not willing to owe you to violence. You shall not be bound down — with your expanded crotch raised upon a pillow — as some girls have been."

"For you... ?" she stammered. "Oh — foul, foul!"

"I have just said it should not happen to you"

"Why do you push that button?"

"Your ladies will wish to attend to you — to prepare you for the night."

"Heavenly powers! In your presence?"

"Unless you prefer that it should be I who disrobes you — kissing every charm which I uncover — then slipping with you into that bed..."

"No, no — anything but that!"

"Those are the two alternatives. Ah — come in, ladies. Mrs. Reed finds herself somewhat nervous tonight. I think she requires a delicate, harmless companionship. Would you mind preparing her for bed?"

Agatha, Mary and the girl, Elsie, smiled lasciviously into the imperturbable face of "the boss." While Helen shrank and whimpered under the blue eyes of the male — who had never seen her unclad and who concealed an ardent interest and delight under an expression of austerity — the trio fell upon the golden haired wife and deftly stripped her of each article she wore.

Grouped about her as they did so, they gave Perry Allen only fleeting glimpses of the snowy nudity here and there of a helplessly wriggling body and limbs. And then, falling to either side, they held the unfortunate Helen exposed entirely to the now burning eyes of the man.

Under pretext of bedding her down, they turned and twisted the girl until her lithe body held no longer the least secret for the man. Cynically they laughed and pointed at the immense protrusion in his breeches — thereby forcing the scarlet cheeked victim to observe herself the effect which her nudity had upon the secretary of her husband.

"Too nervous to sleep alone," he decreed huskily — as the quivering Helen was at last thrust between the sheets and covered from view. "I should say it would be a kindly thing to do if you all gave an hour or so to soothing her somewhat.

"The bed is large. Your husband will not mind your absence for a while, Mary?"

"Oh, no," cried the one-time devotee, dimpling deliciously and gazing at the chief with a sort of demure licentiousness.

"If he comes in search of you you may show him that you are engaged in a benevolent action which can do his own rights no harm — that you are not, at least, wallowing with the Reilleys," smiled Perry.

"Oh, sir — the Reilleys!" she pouted. "I couldn't again — I can't stand it — it wrecks me!"

"No doubt. It is wonderful to be wrecked at times. If you don't mind — all of you ..."

They had understood him. Either indifferent to his eyes or exultant under them, each stripped stark naked. With little gurgles and shovings of each other, they tore the coverlets from the dismayed Helen.

White serpents, they writhed upon the broad bed to hold the shivering girl encompassed. They rubbed their breasts upon her body. They hugged her — they kissed her softly or passionately everywhere.

Wriggling, sighing, with face as red as fire, Helen found it quite useless to seek to protect herself against this avalanche of more and more thinly veiled lechery. She saw the man staring with delight at the shapely, naked legs which thrashed about, at the rosy nooks between them which postures unveiled every now and then —

At the soft groves, one a ruddy bronze and the others dark brown, which stamped the bellies of her aggressors. But she saw, too, that his chief delight appeared to lie in scanning what he could see of her own slender person and in observing her final, flushed, inevitable surrender to what was wanted of her.

Moaning faintly, Helen collapsed at length into a vibrating, submissive, extended body. No longer did she try to dismount the two hoydens who now straddled her soft thighs and rubbed upon them the tingling warmth between their legs.

She shivered as she felt the opened crotch of Agatha borne upon her firm bust — but passively she let her turgid little nipples be caressed by the pouting, rosy cleft of the woman who was her professed adorer and likewise her sensual tormentor.

Rising upon her knees but still straddling the body of the girl, Agatha caught at a supine hand of Helen's. She drew it to her crotch. Sighing with shame as she recognized the imperative, lewd contact, Helen unveiled her gray eyes and caught the perversely overjoyed gaze of Allen.

Crimson, she tried to snatch away her hand — but Agatha slapped her round shoulder — regardless now of the presence of the venerated and formidable young man who was known to their circles as "The Gentleman" — and she recaptured the soft hand, and squeezing it until she cried out, she forced it again to her slit.

Gasping, Helen did now what she must. Gently her fingers ran on the tender lips which wished much more of her complaisance than fingers.

Mary and Ellen abandoned their perches astride the round bare thighs of the captive — thighs which were already moist in spots with the premonitory dew of their coming spasms. Slipping downward, they contended in lewd affray to be each the one whose lascivious mouth should have possession of the nook which they knew to be virginal.

Writhing impotently and panting with shame and with a growing, tingling, awful desire, Helen felt the two eager, wanton mouths mingle at times upon her sexual regions. In her darkly golden bush — into the channel below — ran red tongues as well as lips.

Snapping, the two girls wrestled now for their booty. The former would-be nun cursed her rival in a voice hardly to be recognized as the cultured, smooth voice which Helen had first heard in the car on the day of her abduction.

"Tut tut, my dears — there's plenty for both," came a soft, suave rebuke from above their heads. "You first, Mary — since I understand you had already tried to date this lass up in the car the other day. I think I'm going to have trouble with this infernal Agatha and her mania for our blonde friend."

For, taking advantage of the turmoil behind her, the bronze haired woman was already forcing her pouting sex upwards towards the face of the dismayed and shivering Helen.

The round chin of the prostrate girl felt the lewd pressure. Sighing and twitching, she felt the lewd cleft advance — it covered her mouth....

Chapter XXVII

"You shall — you must!" whispered Agatha hoarsely. "Kiss — kiss — then — your tongue!"

"No — no, no!" moaned Helen, her voice muffled by warm, throbbing flesh.

"Agatha," came a cool voice. "Do you wish to be turned over for the rest of the night to Bert and his great wolfhound?"

The bronze haired woman staggered and rose to her knees.

"No, chief — oh, no!" she wailed. "It is too horrible! They take me at the same time — the man in front and the beast behind!"

"Nevertheless, I shall ran you into Bert's room this instant if you prove refractory."

"No — please! Oh — I'm crazy about this girl — I want her to — suck me!"

"Not now at least, she knows nothing of that art."

"Oh — I can teach her."

"No — but I am sure she will kiss your pretty cunt just once — and maybe let you feel her tongue for a mere instant — if you will release her face."

"Oh — oh!" gasped the woman.

Again she lowered her crotch to the flushed face of the trembling Helen. Mechanically — and for fear of worse — the confused Mrs. Reed kissed softly the rosy cleft and then drew the tip of her tongue along it hastily. The woman gasped her joy. She clutched the soft face with her robust thighs — only to feel herself imperatively hauled back by an iron grip upon her shoulder.

"Oh — oh!" panted Agatha. "What shall I do — I'm wild — I'm suffering — fuck me, chief!"

"No. Here — you see these lovely nipples — how stiff they are. I am sure you can crowd one of them into your warm slit. She will permit it — to prevent the other ..."

Already shaking in a spasm under the action of the lithe, thirsty tongue of Mary upon her throbbing clitoris, Helen groaned dully as she felt the expanded cleft of Agatha crowded down to absorb one of her taut nipples.

The woman panted with lust as she contrived to bear the tiny tip inward until it pressed her own turgid clitoris. And, while Mary, having drunk the dew of the virgin, gave way to the eager Elsie between the parted legs of Helen, the latter moaned with a new and unwilling lust as she felt the tip of her breast squeezed and gently rubbed within the body of Agatha.

So passionately inflamed did the blonde wife become now under these dual abnormal uses of her body that it seemed to her that her sap flowed constantly. And twice the delighted Elsie sipped this dew from the maiden crevice before at last, groaning with rapture, Agatha moistened the delicate breast of Helen with her own emission.

The young wife was prostrated and pallid when at last she was given her freedom from such debaucheries as she had never dreamed of knowing.

"Shall we stay with her?" whispered Mary eagerly.

"No — I think not," murmured Allen, looking keenly into the dazed eyes which Helen opened as she heard the ominous whisper. "No — I think she will wish to kiss us all good night and be allowed to slumber peacefully."

"Aren't even you going to stay with her?" queried Elsie in surprise. "She is so sweet!"

"Of that I am aware. Sweet — but not fond of me."

"What has that to do with it?"

"She is a maiden — and prizes her state."

"Silly fool! I was screwed at twelve — I have always found it wonderful — much better even than sucking a pretty girl."

"This one shall not be touched — in that way — until she is willing."

"Ha — why not? There have been others who — had to take it whether they wished to or not."

"This one is to be different. How sleepy she is now. A kiss all around — eh?"

The drooping Helen, with closed eyes, softly returned the kisses she received. Hardly did she know what she was doing until she felt a crisp moustache at length pressed to her mouth. Opening her eyes, she gazed into the eyes of the man.

For a time she was obstinate — and then, as he waited patiently, he felt her lips move against his own as Helen's lids drooped again. She did not see her chief captor again until a couple of days later — but always his spell seemed upon her even in his absence — especially as she discovered now how complete was his control of this oddly assorted band — of whom she was beginning to see more and more members.

She underwent the experiences of which she wrote to her husband — and compliantly wrote those same letters — which were to stir her spouse's senses as well as his yearning to have her back at home.

Shown naked now to men — seemingly at the will of the women who were her jailers and attendants — she was constantly aware nevertheless that all these things could not happen to her save with the consenting will of Perry Allen.

Thus she was oppressed sensually by the man even when he was not there — and her nerves and her senses were kept in an almost constant tumult.

In her uncanny experience with the fat, gross man who wished to buy her — in which case she would have disappeared forever in a spot among the Andes — she was at no time fearful that actually she would be disposed of in any such way.

She felt the restraining hand of Allen — prescribing that she might be thus tormented in all her finer feelings and might be stirred to inordinate longings and agitations — but which would not loose her into any worse captivity than the one she now endured.

She had had more than apperceptions of the immense, patient, stalking lust of the young man for her — a lust which would be satisfied with nothing less than her heated, glowing surrender to his desires of her own impassioned accord.

And still — even when most shaken and strained by a native passion which was kept artificially stimulated by those about her — she vowed doggedly that never should this man hear from her lips even the most feeble pipe of willingness to accord him her supreme favors.

Hotly she resented the fact that his image — the detested and scorned image, she kept telling herself, of a conscienceless master of crime who had once wormed his way into her friendship in a sensual way which should have warned her — thrust itself to the foreground in her mind whenever she lay alone heated in all her fiber by fearful concessions she had been obliged to make to the sinister or jovial indecency of those who had her in custody.

She had met thus far five or six men of Perry's gang — and all of them save the suave, middle-aged male who had assisted in her capture were rough and uncouth in their outward aspect and in their language and deportment.

Not more than three of them, she gathered, in addition to the women who surrounded her, made this house their continuous headquarters.

At will, apparently — although never unless some of her zealous and jealous feminine guardians were present to avert too great a spasm of lust on the part of the privileged males by a threat to "tell the boss" — these men were permitted to visit the chamber which, with a tiny bathroom, constituted the quarters of the beautiful captive.

Helen became used to being drawn from her bed at morning with a strange man present — to having that man see her nighty withdrawn and feast his inflamed eyes upon every detail of her person before at last he watched her arrayed by Agatha or by another of the girls in her daily attire.

Struggle though she might and did against the effect upon her own senses of being seen — sometimes touched — by these lecherous males in her nudity, the healthy, amorous Helen never failed to vibrate intimately in these conditions.

She scorned herself for what she thought a weakness — and tried to nourish a resentment against Perry Allen for having, by his conversations and persuasions, awakened her more or less slumbering senses before stealing her from her home.

More and more severe tests of her nervous strength came upon the girl — tests which made her bite her red lips at times in the agitated dread that she would cry out her terrible sexual excitement and roll upon the floor at the feet of some one of these robust males as she had heard of Mary rolling at the feet of Bill.

Since never did her deep fund of natural refinement and modesty fail to manifest itself when she was beleaguered by new indecencies, her captors of both sexes found never failing delight in what they were — as Helen surmised — permitted to do with her by the absent master of the band.

It was the huge and formidable and immensely lustful Bill who, in presence of the pretty wife whom he had so strangely wooed from her religious vows, stripped Helen to her stockings one day and held her upon his knees for the surprising telephone communication with Daniel Reed.

And, though the blonde lady was not permitted to utter any audible word to her husband — but only to writhe and moan under lascivious caresses after having been subdued by lusty smacks upon her bare behind — she found herself even more fearfully agitated by the keen impression she had that her husband's secretary as well as Daniel himself listened in that unseen office to her shamed, involuntary gurgles and sighs of passion as she heard her body described and felt the fingers of Bill everywhere upon it.

It was after the man who held her had jammed the receiver back on the hook that the virgin wife had one of her most precarious experiences. Bill was absolutely congested with lust for her beauty.

"Hold this jane," he hissed to his wife. "By God, if it's the last thing I do I'm going to have a piece of this beauty!"

"No, no — almighty Father!" wailed the startled Mary. "You'll ruin everything, Bill — ah — I was afraid it would come to this — you're so horribly hot!"

"Will you hold her — so that I can undress!" demanded the man.

As his wife shrank and fled against a wall, he took the trembling Helen with fingers enwrapped in her genital beard and, dragging her after him by that grip, he advanced upon Mary and smote her upon the hip with an opened and formidable hand.

"Oh — o-o-oh!" squealed Mary. "Don't — I'll hold her — certainly I'll hold her! I'll bet you've made me black and blue there, Bill!"

She caught the quivering Helen — whose sighs of lust were now punctuated with shudders of fear — by the hair of her head and of her pussy and held the weakened girl helpless to flee.

Rapidly the great animal divested himself of his summary attire. Already his monstrous and inflamed member was revealed to the staring, incredulous, frightened, hypnotized gaze of Helen and to that of his wife.

"Bill — let me just tell you," pleaded Mary. "You know you'll have to run from the boss if you do this thing! He won't stand for it — he's terrible when he's angry — you won't get a nickel — and you'll have to leave New York for good even if you escape alive!"

Her herculean spouse — stark naked now — hesitated.

"He fucks you when he likes," he reasoned. "Why shouldn't I have a piece of his girl? God knows he's rolled you plenty — more than I have perhaps — and I've never kicked at all, have I?"

"But this one's never had it," coaxed Mary — calmer now that she saw her arguments had penetrated the lust of her husband and touched his mind.

"Never had it be damned!" roared the man. "I heard that fable before! Married over a year and never had it! You can bet that both her hubby and the chief have rammed her good and plenty. Lookin' the way she does — a good twenty years old — never had it! Don't try to kid me!"

"I'm not!" cried Mary passionately — again wild with dread of consequences as she saw her spouse grab the naked, defenceless, trembling Helen and rub his nakedness on the tender body of the girl.

"Listen — you can prove it — everybody here except you has had a finger into her!"

The man hesitated again.

"Hold her for me," he grunted at last.

By the long, unbound hair of her head Mary bent the fear and lust weakened Helen backward — making a white bow of her nude body and presenting her secrecies to the profaning finger of the man. Once more the shivering but impassioned virgin trembled beneath a shaming penetration.

"By God — she is — -ain't she!" he stuttered at last. "I can feel it all right — and how her little cunt clings to my finger! Hear her gasp — jeez — she's hot!"

"Jerk her off if you like — she's wonderful to watch when she spends — and I don't think the boss would mind that much," muttered the relieved Mary.

"Nobody'll tell him — unless she does," said the man huskily.

"She won't," assured his wife. "She's too modest — you wouldn't believe how modest she is — in spite of all she has to stand."

"Will you tell the chief if I make you spend?" asked Bill of the still bent and impaled Helen.

"Yes — yes, I will," she quavered — though pale to the lips now with lust.

"You will — you will! I'll smack you down!" he rasped savagely, "Will you tell?"

The beleaguered girl shook her head in a frenzy.

"No, no — no!" she whispered faintly.

"You'll spend sweetly for me?"

"Yes — oh, God — y-yes!"

"And never say a word to anybody?"

"Never!" she gasped. "Oh, Mary — oh, Bill!"

"Ask me to make you come."

"Yes — please — p-please — m-make me spend!"

Chapter XXVIII

Upon her bed the inflamed pair laid the nerve-shattered Helen. Mounting the couch, Mary held the arms of the captive and cooed lustfully over a face which turned now rosy and then scarlet as the lecherous finger of Bill pursued its libidinous course.

And when the girl, writhing and stammering and choking, had unwillingly but ardently given the spectacle of her most intimate spasm to the husband and wife, Mary slipped to the floor. Her spouse, shaking with lust, promptly seized her,

"Not yet — you don't get away!" he cried. "You think you're goin' to let old Roger here starve to death?"

"I don't want to get away!" she quavered. "Honest I don't, Bill."

"Lie down here an' take me — beside her."

"Yes — yes — I will, Bill — in a minute ..."

"If I can't have her I'll have you!"

"Yes — you shall — only she ought to be cleaned — she spent wonderfully! See — she is almost unconscious."

"She can go to the bathroom — afterwards — there's no hurry."

"To the bathroom! No — oh, Bill — go away for just a minute!"

"Go away? Whuffor?"

"I want to — oh — clean her — and I'm ashamed to have you see me!"

"Clean her? Oh — I begin to see," he said slowly as his wife covered her rosy face with her hands. "Got that kind of a bug about her, eh? And me who was thinkin' the Reilleys hadn't managed to make you give a damn for anythin' but screwin'! All right."

"May I, Bill? She's so sweet — you've no idea!"

"Go ahead — you're a hell of a nun now, ain't you — you'll be wanting to suck me next I s'pose."

"Never — a man — no!"

"All right — let's see you do it."

Between the white, hanging legs of the still sighing Helen crept the perverse young wife of Bill. Still she kept a shamed, rather apprehensive eye upon her spouse as she gave way beneath his gaze to a proclivity which he hadn't even suspected her to possess. But he grinned down on her with a flushed, startled, lecherous reassurance.

"I had to!" panted Mary. "I'm crazy about her little pink slit, Bill!"

And Helen, slowly recovering from her shaming, delicious experience, felt a softly licking tongue gathering up all the moisture, exterior and interior, which had resulted from a spasm in producing which the powerful man had proved unexpectedly adept.

Quivering anew, the blonde felt the tongue withdrawn. She felt hot kisses upon her cleansed cleft. Nervous fingers sank into her soft thighs.

And the tongue re-entered — it deluged the dainty clitoris with gentle, lascivious caresses.

Sighing, the prostrate maiden began feebly to twist and to quiver once more. Half opening gray eyes in which a slow flame recommenced to glow, she caught the mocking, lustful gaze of the standing Bill. Shame shot to her heart to mingle with the fierce rapture which she could not control.

But she could no more have sought now to repel this new attack than she could have flown. Panting already as the soft tongue became more energetic in its touches, she closed her eyes to shut out the vision of the man's face.

Surprisingly perhaps, the great naked male appeared to find this delicate, abnormal lechery of his wife's a proceeding pleasant to see. He knelt beside her now — and he watched as closely as possible the lewd play of the red tongue and the twisting contortions of the moaning but happy victim.

With husky whispers he encouraged Mary — bade her see if she could get the stiff clitoris between her lips and suck directly upon it. With his hands he held the nude girl in place as her writhing frenzy approached the climax and her movements threatened to displace the mouth of the woman who thus ravished her.

And no sooner had the blonde beauty deluged the tongue of Mary with a new flow of sap than the man grasped his spouse and almost hurled her upon the bed beside the still vibrating Helen. For a time the girl failed to realize what was going on.

But the si err of Mary, the grunts of the man, the movements of the pair, soon drew her from the stupor which had ensued upon her second spasm.

And, prostrated though she had been, an infinite and immediate excitement pervaded her. This — this impalement of woman by man — was something which she had never seen, never experienced.

Watching her avidly as he penetrated his wife to the quick, Bill could perceive the agitation which overcame the girl as she became aware of what was going on. It pleased his perverse lust now to show the virgin fully the details of the copulation and to strive to cause her to mingle with it as far as possible.

"Finger my prick as it goes in and out," he whispered hoarsely — arising to expose the arena by leaving barely the tip of his organ between the gorged lips of the woman's thrilled sex.

"No!" groaned Helen. "No!"

"You must — or else I'll smack you as soon as I'm up off of Mary — and I'll tell the chief, too, that you asked me to mount you but I wouldn't do it."

In truth, neither of these, threats served really to frighten the girl just now. Her bottom still burned deliciously from the few strokes she had had while Bill was at the phone — and she knew well that Perry would not credit such an assertion on the part of Bill even if the latter dared make it.

She chose, nevertheless, to be frightened and subdued by the threats — to think of herself as forced to comply with what was asked of her. As the great ruffian held the sighing Mary by her uncovered breasts and shoved her skirt farther up on her white stomach, Helen extended an unsteady hand towards the tremendous cudgel of the man. Trembling with a reviving lust, she fingered the member curiously throughout all its length.

At last, thrilled to the core, she took both fluttering hands to the shameful task — and at last she held the huge member loosely and felt it glide through her fingers as it entered the panting Mary once more.

Flattening her hands as the two bodies became one, she felt the genital hair of each upon them. Delicately she felt the gorged lips of the woman's sex and the roots of the man's virility. Then, withdrawing her hands, she gave room for the entrance of that final quarter of an inch.

"Get on top of me, lass," gasped Bill hoarsely as he began the steady ploughing of the enraptured Mary's furrow.

And even this the excited Helen did. Wallowing upon the brawny back and buttocks of the man, she hugged him with arms and legs as she was tossed upon the sea of lust beneath her. When he jammed downward she jammed with him — rubbing her mossy cleft hard upon his bottom as she did so.

When he arose she retreated perforce — but still she rubbed that tingling slit upon his flesh. And when the two spouses lay motionless at the close of their mutual delirium, Mary found herself forced to bear a double burden — for Helen, in a fury of lust, spent ardently upon the flesh of the male.

Chapter XXIX

Strangely perhaps — though naturally enough considering the lecherous atmosphere in which the band held her — Helen began to find herself moved by a sort of indulgence towards even the most coarsened of the gang who dwelt in this house with her.

None of them — male or female — made the least effort to hide an intense admiration for her beauty — although not all of them carried this admiration to the sensual lengths which characterized the feelings of Agatha and Mary.

The hopeless shame with which she had at first allowed herself to be deprived of all clothing in presence of any or all of the men for the pleasure of their eyes began to be shot through more and more with a libidinous delight in the intense and brutal emotions which her body, half or wholly unclad, never failed to stir in the males of the band.

She had reached the stage where her eyes at once sought out surreptitiously the breeches of whatever male was present when she bathed or disrobed or arose from bed — in order to see that great swelling appear within the masculine garments.

Her getting up or going to bed — even her daily bath — became public spectacles at which whatever men were in the house at the time never failed to appear. This was imposed upon her by the women who guarded her. She knew that, lascivious though these women were, they would never have dared venture these daily odiums for her unless the chief of the band authorized it — and, even though she had come to the point of vibrating intimately whenever she was forced to these displays of herself and saw the undisguised effect of her nakedness on those about her, she nevertheless found a point of venom to charge up to Perry Allen's account even while beginning to exculpate those who were merely his tools.

Nevertheless, she knew quite well — though she failed to accord the secretary credit for it — that if it had not been for his unseen power over all the troupe any one of these males would have been quite capable of violating her without compunction or delay.

She knew, too, that only her fear of "the boss" prevented the inflamed, authoritative Agatha from forcing the warm mouth of the captive between the naked thighs of the bronze haired woman daily and imposing upon the victim unspeakable caresses of the womanly flesh.

Infernally frank — though always brutally admiring — were the comments of each of the four men whom she had seen upon her exposed flesh. All four of them were gathered one morning beside the tub in which she lay — examining her with lewd delight as she was bathed by Agatha and by the young girl, Elsie.

And now Helen had to endure the vast embarrassment of hearing Agatha tell these inflamed males exultantly that "the boss" had forced the captive to kiss and to lick the former between her legs.

"How can you!" wailed Helen, veiling her flushed face in her hands. "I didn't — it's not true!"

"Not true — oh — if I had my way I'd shake you until your teeth rattled — and put you in the center of the breakfast table quite naked for everybody to smack if they liked!" rasped Agatha.

"Agatha!" gasped the blonde lady.

"I would — I have a mind to do it anyway! I'll leave it to Elsie. Elsie — -didn't she lick and kiss me between the thighs?"

"Sure," grinned the rosy cheeked girl, rolling her cud of gum.

"Only for a second!" shrieked poor Helen, crimson to the brow now. "And then only — because I had to! Besides — Elsie couldn't really see — she was ..."

"Don't you tell what I was doing!" cried Elsie.

"We can guess," said the man, Mike — he who had driven the kidnaping car. "We know what you like to do to a pretty girl — and small blame to you with a lovely lady like this one."

"I heard, anyhow," muttered Elsie doggedly. "I heard the chief tell her to do it to Agatha — and I heard Agatha sigh with pleasure."

The infinitely mortified Helen cowered in silence in the clear water under the mocking, interested, inflamed eyes of the men. It was useless for her to go into details of what had happened on the night when Perry, rebuffed, had summoned the three girls to attend to her — for even the truest account of what had occurred must rebound to her own burning shame.

She had trusted that the facts of this episode would never come to the knowledge of any save the actors in it. And she knew that Agatha's action in boasting thus lewdly constituted a humiliating revenge upon herself. For, ever since feeling to briefly — for a second only — the lips and tongue of the blonde upon her sex, Agatha appeared to have cherished the hope that Helen might be induced to offer — whether licentiously or subjugatedly hardly mattered to the bronze haired woman — the caresses for which the latter pined.

It was necessary of course that this should all be a secret from the man who held the power and who had already declined to allow this complaisance to be extracted, forcibly or otherwise, from the lady who awaited ransoming, but the indefatigably lewd Agatha had her plans and her hopes.

It seemed to her — she had convinced herself — that the wee kiss upon her cleft had been a warm one and that the hastily drawn tongue-tip on that same nook had harbored a certain gusto in its act.

Twice already, alone with Helen after preparing her for bed, she had exposed herself perversely — trying to tempt the girl by the sight of her proffered and very pretty sexual regions. But the effect had been utterly null — even after the woman had used as much violence as she dared employ and had shaken the mute and still naked blonde with vigor.

"All right — all right!" the baffled woman had mumbled. "You'll be sorry! You're the only one in the world that I really want to have do this to me — and you've got to play stuck up! I know what the boss wants of you — and you'll be well fucked before you ever get back home — and you'll have to suck his prick before and after he has had you! Yet you think you're too fine to kiss me a little bit — bah!"

"He'll never have me — never!" exclaimed Helen forcefully.

Agatha grunted — and would have let the matter drop. But the blonde young wife, already thrilling, as always now, to the childish treatment of not even being allowed to attend to her own nightly toilet, found herself morbidly willing to discuss this topic.

"What makes you think he will insist upon — dishonoring me — before I am let go?" she breathed anxiously.

"Humph!" snorted Agatha. "I know what I know!"

She let fall the gauzy nightgown over the fair head of Helen — but promptly she half raised it again over the slender, lovely legs under pretext that it didn't hang properly. And the soft, sweet body of the girl shivered under ineffable liberties prompted by the lust of her custodian — whose senses ran riot, as always when she found the chance to be alone with Helen.

"Don't — please d-don't — f-feel my stomach and — b-bottom that way, Agatha!" pleaded the blonde huskily. "It can't be necessary — oh — o-o-oh — d-don't touch me there!"

"You open those legs this instant, unless you want to be stripped again and royally shaken!" rasped Agatha nervously. "If I want to find out whether you are going to bed all heated up or in a quiet frame of mind that is my privilege, I guess.

"Oh — if only I had complete charge of you, my lady! I'd give more than any ransom if I had it just to be able to take you off where nobody could find us for a while. There are wealthy ladies who would give me a fortune for you after you had been trained — and how I would enjoy training you!"

"Training me?" faltered Helen. "Oh — you mean in the horrid things you want of me!"

"Horrid — horrid! You want to be shaken up?" "No — oh, Agatha!"

"Is it horrid to wish to be loved by you — sucked by that sweet, rosy mouth?" "No, no — not horrid!" "What is it then?" "Lovely!" quavered Helen. "Then why don't you wish to do it?" "I can't — oh, Agatha — I simply can't bring myself to — use my lips and tongue — that way!"

"Silly little pet! But you shall learn, I promise you — if ever I can be free of the chief and do as I like with you! You liked it well enough, though, when Mary and Elsie went down on you!"

"Oh — I was so ashamed!" "You loved it — don't say you didn't!" "I — well — I couldn't do anything to prevent it — with a man and three girls mastering me ..."

"Will you open these warm legs — and let Agatha feel your little cunt nicely!" "No — p-please!"

"This instant — or I'll take you in hand!" "Oh, Agatha — it makes me so — nervous!" "I swear to God I'll use you the way Bill did unless you open your thighs of your own accord!" "Ah — a-a-a-ah!"

"Wider — so that I can feel all the channel." "Oh God — o-o-h — a-a-a-ah!"

"Hot little darling — oh — if only you were hot for me! You shall be, I swear. God — to have you to myself — even for one week!"

"Oh — oh — n-not — inside, Agatha!"

"Your little slit is like warm velvet. Stand still — I want to feel between your buttocks with this other hand."

"Oh — o-o-h — I shall — d-die!"

"You won't die — you hot blooded sweetness!"

"I shall — sp-spend!"

"Indeed you shall. You wouldn't sleep a wink if I put you to bed in this heated state. Can you feel my fingertip touch your maidenhead each time as I run it clear in?"

"Yes — y-yes — o-o-o-ohhh!"

"Too bad this tender maidenhead has to perish!

"If you would run away with me you would be allowed to keep it always if you liked."

"I — I'll — k-keep it anyway — o-o-oh!"

"Swell chance — with the boss around when he likes — and feeling as he does towards you!"

"A-r-r-r-h — oh, oh, oh — o-o-o-hh!"

"A perfect flood, you passionate darling! See my finger — how shiny it is. Too bad we haven't got Mary or Elsie — who would love to lick it all up nicely for you. As it is, I shall have to clean you myself. Come to the bathroom. Can't walk, eh? Well — I can always carry you."

Ten minutes later Agatha bent above the white bed in which she had placed the nightgowned Helen, and she kissed the soft, mute, unresponsive lips.

"Is that the way you kiss me goodnight?" asked the bronze haired wooer warningly.

They kissed again — and this time the mouth of Helen moved gently against that of the older girl.

"Better than that — better," cooed Agatha. "An inside kiss, pet."

"Oh — I'm so ashamed and nervous when you — do that to me, Agatha!" sighed the girl.

"Part these white little teeth."

"Oh, oh — your tongue!" came the muffled voice of Helen.

"I'll screw your rosy mouth, dearest. Open it well."

In a silence broken only by the gurgling sighs of the blonde maiden, the latter submitted once again to the insidious caress in which she had already learned that Agatha delighted. Between her lips, over the surface of her crouching tongue, glided the warm, wet, lascivious tongue of the older girl.

Back and forth it went — ranging to either side at times to lick and fondle all the interior of the dainty mouth.

And presently, sighing, Helen lifted white, bare arms to encircle the neck of her bending and sometimes cruel adorer. Her own tongue moved into timid action as she felt the spark sowed in her nerves arise into soft flame. She licked gently the larger tongue which impaled her. She shuddered lightly — her eyes closed.

"Hot again, eh — scandalous little creature!" whispered Agatha, raising her head and unjoining their yoked mouths.

"No, no," denied Helen whisperingly, as her head rolled upon the pillow.

Agatha darted a hand under the bed clothes.

"No — oh — Agatha!" panted the younger girl.

"Let me pull up this soft nighty. Ah — I thought so! How dare you deny that you are wrought up by our kisses! This tiny clitty is quite stiff."

"Take away your hand — please!"

This time the woman complied. With a hasty good night, she turned to put out the light and go.

And then she heard a faint whisper from the bed.

"He won't — make me ..."

"What's that?" she queried, whirling.

"I said — he isn't going to compel me to — let him."

"Still harping on that, eh?" observed Agatha, looking curiously at her charge. "It's a regular obsession, I believe. I tell you he will lie with you just as certainly as you're lying alone right now. He'll screw you to a frazzle — he's marvelous!"

"No — for the other night — I wouldn't. And he didn't insist. He called you and the others."

"And you didn't escape scot free — did you?" commented Agatha with a smile.

"No — but — it shows I can always protect myself against him — by refusing to consent."

"In your case he seems to have a morbid desire to hear the word 'yes.' And you will speak it — you can't escape — he has a thousand ways of making one even say what he wishes — and mean it too."

"Ah — never! He has done enough to me already — degraded me, humiliated me!"

"We had once — for business purposes — a lady and her grown daughter. We — er — what was it he called it? — ah — we sequestered them for only three days as it happened before we got what we wanted out of the old man. It was in the Mississippi valley.

"The chief took a fancy, I guess, to the novelty of having a pleasant faced mother and her daughter at the same time. They were refined — fussy. The girl had been married but was a very young widow.

"In that case, too, he had a queer notion of wishing their consent. They flared with horror and disdain at the idea. Well — on the second night — they came to him in his room — both naked and both fleeing to his bed and his protection against worse.

"And I tell you that it was gladly that they begged now to be allowed to sleep with him — -and both promised hysterically that he should do whatever he liked with them.

"And whatever he did he did so wonderfully that they set aside all shame on the following night to beg to be allowed one more night with him. Even when he told them that the 'rascals' who had annoyed them on the previous night had been punished as well as warned — and assured them they would not be molested in their own room if they chose to go there — they flared with blushes because some of us were there listening — but they went to the door of his chamber and entered it together."

"Good grief!" exclaimed Helen. "How can a man be so promiscuous — such a debauche!"

Agatha smiled broadly.

"You sounded jealous that time," she announced.

"Jealous! Of him! How silly!"

"You may not know it — but..."

"How could I be jealous of a — a ..."

"Say it. I'm not sensitive."

"A crook, then, a fearful crook! Besides, I knew before — before I found out this fine looking, 'respectable' man was a law breaker — that he was no Joseph. He admitted to me some of the most incredible amours."

"With me?"

"He didn't speak of you."

"I've slept with him often — the only man I've ever given a damn about. He takes whatever girl he wishes in the gang — wife or daughter or whatever she may be of some one of the men."

"Don't they mind?"

"We look at such matters a trifle differently from the run of placid humanity. If the chief had a wife and some of the fellows got crazy about her I don't suppose he would let that chap suffer."

"Ah! A girl, then, marries a gang if she takes a husband among you?"

"That's putting it a little strongly. But we're not bound much by conventions. Ask Mary. The only two men she really cares about are the chief and her husband — though she does love now — since the Reilleys taught her — to make a pretty girl spend.

"But she earned a gun that her hubby coveted by going in to sleep with Mike a few nights ago."

"Ha — what a community!"

"A scattered community most of the time."

"This makes me all the more averse to — to having anything to do with Per — I mean — with any of you."

"With any of us?" queried Agatha blandly — and her clawing fingers descended upon the soft shoulders.

"No — no, no — I meant — any of the men!" squealed Helen precipitately. "Oh don't haul me out of bed — don't yank off my nighty again!"

"I just want to see you — I never get tired of looking at you!"

"I'm afraid you mean to shake me — or spank me!"

"No — not if you are good — and sit here on my lap all naked — and let me see and feel you. Ah — I'm crazy about you, you know! I dream sometimes that your warm face is in my bare lap — then it seems as if I just had at least to see you right away!"

"Is that why you came in the middle of the night last night?"

"Yes — I had just dreamed of you — and I came and held you against my bare bosom and belly — oh — and didn't dare press your sweet face down where I really burned to feel it!"

Agatha — how your face burns against my — titties!"

"Open up!"

"No — you mustn't masturbate me again! I'm so weak and tired already — with all this excitement."

"I shall — unless you suck my nipples!"

"Oh, Agatha — how shameful! Don't uncover them — but — they're lovely!"

"Persons have thought so. But you have paid them no attention."

"I have — I've always admired them — but it isn't nice to speak of such things — between women."

"Why not? Have you ever sucked a tittie — a nipple?"

"Not a woman's — since I grew up."

"A man's, then — oh?"

"Don't ask me!"

"Will you suck mine? Since I can't be sucked elsewhere — I want your lips at least here. There's no commandment against that. Baby face — suck mother nicely."

"No — n-no! It — oh — makes me so ashamed!"

"If I had Elsie or Mary to suck your little slit while you did it I'll bet you'd do it gladly! I must see if I can't get permission for that."

"Who could accord it? I'm not a serf — even if I am held here!"

"No — but there are methods of persuasion. Sometimes I fancy you regret that I am not minded to lick you between your lovely legs — the way Elsie and Mary love to do. My fancy is wholly otherwise."

"I don't regret it — I don't!"

"But you spent wonderfully under their mouths. And you might be persuaded to return such a caress."

"Never — I shouldn't!"

"Your rosy lips at this nipple — come!"

"No — n-no — Agatha ..."

"Yes, darling — or else I shall tear these tender thighs apart and — use my fingers."

"No — oh — I couldn't endure more — not tonight! Will — will this do?"

"Rosebud! Can you feel my nipple stiffen — like a little prick — between your lips?"

"Yes — how you tremble!"

"The sensation is divine! I had no idea it would be so lovely. Suck the other one — lick a little."

"Oh — o-o-oh!"

"Oh — oh — yes — squeeze my titties while you suck them — oh, God!"

"It frightens me when you get so excited. I keep being afraid you will!"

"Ah — you fear I shall lose self-control and all awe of the chief and his orders — and force your pretty head down over my belly!"

"Agatha — don't even speak of it, I beg you!"

"Listen — just one kiss — and a tiny lick — down there — the way he made you do."

"No — n-no!"

"He will never know. If you even tell him I asked it I shall be savage with you!"

"I can't — I won't!"

"Do you want me to fasten your wrists to your ankles — and make you sleep that way? I shall tell the chief, if he comes, that I caught you fingering yourself and that I had to restrain you by tying you up."

"He wouldn't believe it!"

"Nevertheless he would hear it gravely — maybe order that you be compelled to repeat the offense under the eyes of all the men — and then have you attacked every night."

"I should perish with shame!"

"Suck my titties again."

"Yes, Agatha — yes!"

"And spread your legs, spread them, I say! Shall I have to use force?"

"Please — oh, my God — I've spent so much!"

"Hush — you could spend forever — torrid little thing! Oh — the cute, sweet, rosy, tiny slit!"

"Agatha — oh — o-o-ohh!"

"Suck — and keep quiet."

"How — h-how c-can I — o-o-oh!"

"Do as I tell you! Ah — how sweetly you suck-shivering all over — while I touch your clitoris!"

"I — I c-can't — keep it up!"

"You shall — and then afterwards you shall be tied!"

"Not that — ah — not that!"

"You know how to escape it. Here — stand between my knees for an instant. I'll unfasten my skirt at the waist and push it down. Now — all you have to do is lift the border of my little chemise and..."

"Agatha — God in heaven! How do I know you will be satisfied with — what you ask?"

"I promise — just one wee kiss and one soft lick."

"It is so disgraceful — I — no — I won't!"

"Then get back on my lap — and spread your legs."

"Oh — no!"

"I'm losing patience!"

Slowly Helen sank to her knees between the robust thighs of the older girl. Her face was scarlet and her fingers shook as she raised the flap of lace and linen which veiled the secrecies of Agatha.

In a space of six inches between the lowered skirtband and the raised chemise there was framed the naked genitals of the unnatural lover of the captive wife. A copious and curling grove of shining bronze gleamed upon a firm, small mound. Just beneath there peered coquettishly a touch of pink between the loosely closed thighs.

As the kneeling, shamed girl stared hypnotisedly the snowy thighs gradually parted. The mysterious channel between them was revealed.

"I'm waiting," came the husky whisper from above the head of Helen.

"Agatha — oh, God — m-must I!"

"I'm waiting!"

"Oh — can't you understand that to have to do this deliberately — of my own accord!"

"I'm waiting!" throbbed the inflexible answer.

And suddenly Helen collapsed into a sort of fevered compliance. She bowed her head upon the naked privacies. In her reeling, quivering agitation she kissed the bare rose of the girl's cleft thrice instead of the once demanded. Agatha groaned her pleasure.

Recalled in some measure to herself by the sound, Helen hastily swept the soft furrow of the feminine groove with her tongue. And then, her infinite shame increased by the sudden reflection that this passage whose portals she thus caressed had been penetrated by the virility of the unspeakable Perry, she cowered backward with her face in her hands.

"Twice more — as many times as you kissed," demanded Agatha chokingly.

"Oh, Agatha — you promised!" wailed Helen.

"I asked a kiss and a touch of your tongue. You gave three kisses — you must balance the account."

"Please, darling — no!"

The woman flushed more deeply with gratification as she heard the endearing term which Helen involuntarily used. But she was inflexible in her happy excitement.

"If you dislike my pussy and slit why did you kiss them three times?" she asked softly.

"I — I don't dislike them," stammered Helen. "I think they are very — p-pretty — I — it is only that it just occurred to me that — something has been in here."

"Ah — you're thinking of Perry Allen — I might-have known it!" said Agatha, her face darkening a little. "Yes — and if you want to know more, he is the only man who has ever thrown me into real spasms. But you shall lick his traces!"

"No, no!"

"Yes, yes — and very slowly."

"Ah — a-a-a-a-h!" gasped Helen.

And now, very slowly — shuddering and tingling — she drew her flattened tongue forcefully along the rosy groove from bottom to top and back again. She repeated the caress in the same manner.

She heard Agatha gurgle and saw her flatten out suddenly and flaccidly in her chair. Hastily Helen arose to her feet. She saw the woman, pale and with eyes revulsed in her head, shiver and grind her thighs together. She was moaning softly and twisting.

Agatha lay quietly for a time and then slowly sat up. She smiled at the flushed girl.

"It was too much for me — to feel your tongue there," she said softly. "It was marvelous — better than having any other girl's tongue way inside! And so, darling, you have done it to me — you have licked me off!"

"I haven't — I didn't!" stammered Helen, crimson to the brow. "I just touched it — a little."

"All right — have it your way. Touch again — and you will find out."

"I don't want to. With — with my finger?"

"Yes."

"Ah — it is — moist — did I really do that?"

"No one else. It was because it was you — it didn't take much to make me come. And now you shall have your nighty on again and go to sleep."

"I'm so tired, Agatha — I've been fearfully excited!"

"So I've noticed. Hold up your lovely arms now for the nighty. Oh, what a darling belly — let mother kiss the pink navel — and — yes — mother will do something she has never done to any girl — she will kiss the golden beard!"

"Agatha — please put on my nightgown!"

"Yes — now you're all covered up modestly. You can't understand how surprised I am to find myself wishing to kiss your curly pussy."

"Well — you made me — do worse — to you."

"Better — not worse. But your sweet lips were just meant to — munch me — and your tongue to tickle. But I wasn't meant to do such things to a girl — only to receive caresses from her. Now go to sleep. Good night."

Chapter XXX

Of this more genuine conquest of the beautiful young blonde Agatha did not speak to Bill or Mike or the others as she had done concerning the earlier indelicacy imposed upon the girl in presence of the leader of the band.

It is possible that she feared to have the episode come to the ears of the dreaded chief — and it is possible, too, that she thought herself at last in a fair way to draw from the golden haired maiden a willing complaisance to this somber lust which she had aroused in the older girl, a complaisance which might be imperiled in case what had happened were made known to taunting men and women.

As for Helen — kept much of the time in an atmosphere which was aphrodisiacally saturated by both what she experienced and what she saw about her — she could hardly say what she thought of the incident in which, nude and kneeling, she had amazedly found that she had caused the pretty, bronze headed woman to emit her seed.

Incredulously she pictured to herself again and again her warm kisses upon that pouting crevice and the drawing of her tongue lingeringly upon it. She seemed to taste again the delicate velvet which her tongue had known — to see that wee, rosy gash pouting its silent plea before her eyes.

And she trembled and flushed in the privacy which enabled her to cogitate thus. And she found her bare thighs grinding together and her mind wondering ashamedly how it would feel — and what the effect would be — if she were actually to press the tip of her tongue inside — as others had done with her.

And whether or not a genuine Lesbian tendency might have fully developed in the girl — or whether these lewd ponderings, like many others which she had nowadays, were solely due to the fact that her senses were allowed little repose save at night — and not always then — it is hard to decide.

In any event, she was undergoing a curriculum — and this fact she more than vaguely apprehended at times — which was designed to work her ultimately into such a fury and froth of sensuality that she would fall an easy and consenting prey to the lust of Perry Allen.

It was her firm determination that this campaign — if campaign it was; — should fail utterly. Never, never, she told herself exasperatedly, would she use the word yes towards the lechery of this man.

She thought — and this was probably true — that only he and she knew clearly that her surrender to the daily and nightly indecencies of this household was a part of his conceived plan to conquer her and to draw a willing abdication of her virginity.

The others — the rank and file of the band — were glad to have her as a sort of plaything, glad also to make parade before her of their lust for her or for others about her, glad to perpetrate ignoble indecencies under the eyes of a girl of station and refinement and beauty.

But, with the probable exception of the shrewd Agatha, they did not comprehend the purpose inspiring the privileges which they were allowed with Mrs. Reed.

She was now allowed the run of the house pretty freely — although constantly under watch and guard lest she should break away and not only force flight upon the gang but cause the loss of the expected ransom. She asked to be allowed outdoors — saying to Agatha that it seemed to her a year since she had known that experience.

The latter glanced at the men about the table — this was in the dining room, where Helen was now allowed to take her meals with the rest — and hesitated.

"No harm that I can see," grunted Bill. "It's dusk now — no other house near by. And even if she did pick up enough of the surroundings to recognize the place later on we should all be gone far away."

"OK by me," assented Agatha at last. "Take off your clothes, Mrs. Reed."

"Take off my clothes?" faltered the girl bewilderedly. "To go out in the yard?"

The men stiffened in their chairs. With an admiring glance at Agatha, they grinned at the smiling women.

"Sure," said Mike.

"Absolutely — " said firmly the suave, middle-aged man known as "Professor" — the male who had sided Mike in her capture. "It's warm — you're very lovely without clothes — but we shan't eat you — except perhaps Mary."

"Keep your ideas to yourself!" said that fair lady indignantly — with an apprehensive glance at her husband.

"The idea is," vouchsafed Agatha, "that if you are quite bare you can hardly break away and run down the road towards the nearest house or to attract the attention of some passing driver. Nevertheless — you will be watched carefully — so don't get any fool notions into your head."

"I don't think I'll — take the airing," murmured Helen.

"You will — believe me, you will!" rasped Agatha impatiently. "It was your own idea — and you'll carry it out. Do you want to be shaken up?"

"No," declaimed Helen, backing away. "But — I hate..."

"Undress yourself this minute!"

And Mrs. Reed did so. It was the first time that the males of the group had been privileged to watch this unaided and intimate operation — and they took silent, glowing advantage of it.

Drawing her chemise over her flushed face at last, the blonde captive stood before them all arrayed in just her shoes and stockings. There was the silence now of admiration as well as of lust about her — and, recognizing the atmosphere from recent experiences with it, Helen trembled in a sort of sensual fever.

Covertly glancing about her with lowered eyes, she sought — and found — the always fascinating, agitating spectacle of the stiffened members within masculine garb. Unconsciously she ground her snowy thighs together in an excitement almost uncontrollable.

And she was moved to a voluntary and shamed indecency of her own. For she sought a hassock near the side of the room. She sat upon it for the removal of her shoes and hosiery. And, instead of turning as chastely as possible aside from all these intent eyes, the lovely Mrs. Reed faced the group.

She seemed totally unaware of her indiscretion and of all these eyes — but she revealed clearly between expanded thighs, as she slipped down the silken webs of her stockings, the delicate nook which none of these males had ever seen so satisfactorily.

"Who will take her out for a little promenade?" queried the smiling Agatha.

A babel of male and female voices arose.

"I will..."

"No — I..."

"Let me...!"

"If the Reilleys were here," smiled Agatha, "they'd all have grabbed her before now — and they'd bring her back to. us unconscious."

"I think I should be the one," came a soft, low voice. "I have never seen her before — -and you others have all had plenty of chances — "

Helen, rosy as the dawn, turned to look at the speaker. It was a girl called Susan — a slight, pale creature who had just arrived. She gave Mrs. Reed a gentle, wistful smile. She appeared so innocent and quiet that Helen wondered anew — as she had a half hour earlier — that a girl of this type should be adjoined to such a band.

And the captive was astounded by the meaning glances which went about the room.

"Ha — we want her as she is now!" rasped the Professor, seeming shaken out of his suavity.

"The chief would raise hell!" piped up Elsie.

"This is no hospital!" roared Bill. "We've seen you take a girl away before!"

The delicate, "innocent" girl raved suddenly with profane resentment.

"Go and fuck yourselves, you bunch of bastards!" she foamed. "All I ask is ten minutes alone with her — and you God damned, lousy, cock sucking cunt-lappers have probably slept with her turn and turn about!

"I'll tell the chief, by Christ, that I caught one of you buggering her and the others holding her down!"

"Be yourself, Sue — give her a shot of brandy, somebody," said Agatha with dignity.

Without seeming resentment over the tirade, the tribe held the shaking Susan. Mike brought brandy. She gulped it down. She sank into a chair — and she stared at the startled, shivering Helen now with a face which was a mask of something far different from the former gentle, mild kindness which had pervaded these features — different, in fact, from anything which the naked blonde had ever before seen on human lineaments.

While the others in the room surrounded Susan and performed other operations besides the administration of the brandy — operations which Helen could not see clearly at first — Agatha calmly drew the nude lady to her lap and whispered in her ear:

"I hardly think you would like to be left alone with young Sue there. You would think of me as a perfect lily after an experience 'with her. This is a girl who, at sixteen, admitted two husky brutes to her home at midnight and turned them loose on her own mother — for the sole pleasure, apparently, of seeing her mother outraged again and again.

"The woman was bedridden at the time with some nervous disorder. Thereafter, night after night, she had to undergo the caprices of whatever ruffians Susan pleased to admit to her room. She recovered — but whereas she had been a mild, decent woman before these experiences, she has been a hopeless nymphomaniac ever since.

"This girl Susan seduced her own married brother by rushing to him one night, stark naked, and pretending she had been frightened from her bathroom by the steps of some marauder in the hall. The young man left his bed to accompany her in search of the supposed intruder — and before he returned to his wife's side he had become so inflamed by the persistent nudity of his sister and by her actions that he rolled with her upon the floor of her chamber.

"I could not begin to tell you the things she has done with young girls who have fallen under her influence. She has an infernal way of subjecting them to nerve-wracking, indescribable lecheries that leave them weak and gasping.

"She would be quite capable, if she got you into that yard alone, of summoning some passing man through the dusk and telling him you were her 'coked up' employer — who must be screwed instantly as the sole means of restoring you to your senses.

"You would be helpless even to protest — -for already she would have you squirming upon the turf and beating it with your hands and feet. You would be under her spell fully and horribly. We do not know just what it is that she does with young girls who fall into her hands — but we do know that none of them ever seem able to effectually resist her — and that each is a wreck for a time afterwards."

Wide eyed, Helen stared at the informant who, regardless of the casual glances that fell upon them, cuddled her in her arms and smoothed her exquisite body with hands that groped. Then she turned to look at the writhing and panting Susan.

"It's one of her spells," murmured Agatha. "She was so eager to get at you — and so enraged by being baffled — that she fell into this syncope. Watch the way in which she is brought out of it."

Chapter XXXI

Susan, struggling, moaning and with her normally pale face as red as fire, had been laid upon her back on a broad sofa. Bill and Mike held her feet high in the air and widely separated. From her slender, milk white thighs the clothing fell away, revealing the girl naked to the navel.

Upon the delicate sex, with its adornment of brown, frizzly hair, pounced the mouth of Mary. To the rear, where an oval, soft bottom was nakedly displayed, went the face of Elsie. The girl parted the cheeks and buried her tongue between them.

Almost fiercely they ravaged the charms allotted to them.

"You have to be terrible with Susan when she has these hysterical lusts," said Agatha. "Elsie and Susan like to do these things — as, of course, you know by now. They would rather it were you — but they will almost literally eat her. Everybody will help — you shall see."

The Professor had uncovered the small breasts of the supine Susan. Running his hands downward he rubbed her belly smartly and smacked it — while sucking her nipples with vigour.

Suddenly Susan cried out hoarsely in a frenzy. Her sleek brown head rolled upon its cushion. She thrashed and kicked so wildly that the two husky men who held her by ankles and calves had to redouble their grip upon her limbs.

"She is spending a flood," commented Agatha. "You had better be thankful — since you dislike the idea so much — that it is Mary who drinks it instead of you. But you would drink it, I promise you, if Susan ever got you into her clutches!"

"See — oh, my God!" stammered Helen. "Elsie has her tongue way into the girl's — rump — way in!"

"You will see pretty soon why there is room," said Agatha.

After her emission Susan lay quivering for a moment of two. Then suddenly she sprang into writhing contortions once more.

Immediately she was seized by the men and totally disrobed. Mike and Bill stripped off their trousers while the others held the foaming girl. The former reposed then upon his back on the floor. By sheer force Susan was lowered upon the rigid prick of the man and impaled.

Instantly Mike seized her slender body in a grip of steel. He held her immobile while Bill adjusted his great member to the anus of the wailing girl.

With gray eyes almost bulging from her head, Helen watched such a scene of fearful lechery as she could never have conceived possible. Susan, seeming so delicate that one would have thought her inevitably crushed between these powerful, hairy bodies, threw back her head with a long, guttural moan as into the body already pierced to the quick by the spear in front, the shaft of Bill slowly penetrated in the rear.

Gorged by both members simultaneously, Susan lay shuddering. Her breath hissed between her clenched teeth. Her eyes, turned in every direction, seemed glazed and unseeing.

"She's unconscious!" quavered Helen.

"No — she's just coming to herself on the contrary," said Agatha. "She can take these two men — and go wild with ecstasy. But it is necessary to go very gradually at first — because their pricks are both large."

The two members were buried now to the roots in the seemingly frail body of Susan — a body in which there appeared hardly room for them. They must have almost touched each other, with only the thinnest of stretched membranes separating them.

The color was ebbing from the girl's face. But a light that appeared a flame was beginning to glow at the depths of the dazed eyes. Very slowly she raised her loins — thus gradually disgorging from her sexual passage the rod of Mike.

And Bill, retreating to permit her movement, waited until his confederate's member had almost entirely emerged before he himself withdrew his organ from its unnatural abode.

Clawing the rug to her either side — gasping and moaning but otherwise mute — Susan sank gradually downward again, impaling herself. With his movement Bill advanced his loins also — so that the two organs penetrated simultaneously now.

The movements were repeated — and then repeated again. Raucous, inhuman cries gurgled from the congested throat of Susan. And, as if these had been signals, the two men set more steadily to work, aided, as they were, by the movements of the deliriously happy victim herself.

Pale to the lips, Helen saw all this. Sighing, she almost unconsciously parted her legs upon the imperious whisper of Agatha and permitted the inflamed woman to "pet" her palpitating cleft.

Dimly she saw that the Professor and others not immediately concerned in the animated tableau of lust upon the floor perceived her own amorous subjection and were vastly interested in it. But this she no longer seemed to mind at all.

"Susan is spending again!" whispered Helen.

And excitedly she hugged the persecutor whom she now esteemed a very dear tyrant.

"Spending! Why — she's spending nearly all the time — she's an incredible creature!" muttered Agatha. "See — there go the men!"

With a bellow Bill had glued his belly to the snowy rump of Susan. As he did so, she screamed her delight and forced the member of Mike into her in front to the roots. This determined the spasm of the supine man beneath her. He roared his pleasure and the trio lay, shaking and gradually recovering their senses.

When the group was at last untangled Susan lay motionless. She was as pallid as death and her eyes were closed. Her face was drawn and wan.

"Put her to bed," directed Agatha. "She will be all right now — after she has had an hour or two of sleep."

The girl was carried away by two of the men — who presently returned and joined the group which had gathered covetously about the naked Helen, still upon her mentor's knees but more sedate of posture now.

The nude young lady was still hardly able to speak as the result of the indescribable scene she had witnessed. But she cowered under all these inflamed eyes so unswervingly upon her. Without exception and without reference to sex, these persons battered her silently with lewd glances and desires — almost wolfish — almost palpable.

She was inclined to shrink back into the protecting arms of Agatha — even though she well knew how dangerous that bronze haired woman could be. Startled, she recognized the fact that what had occurred — which would have sent most groups, even of roues, slinking off to bed in exhaustion of nerves and bodies — had simply whetted the carnal appetites which now seemed turned upon her.

She saw that even Bill and Mike — gazing down raptly upon her bosom and belly and seeking vainly to penetrate farther with their heated glances — paid her the undesired and involuntary compliment of new erections as they inspected her nudity.

Agatha laughed huskily as Helen cowered back into her arms.

"Don't frighten this girl," she protested. "She's had a shock."

"I'd give more than my share of the ransom," wheezed Mike brutally — "for just one slice of her!"

"Me too," rasped Bill. "The boss gets my goat sometimes — and this is one time. She'd be the better for it, too!"

"Well, you'll not!" rapped out Agatha, thumping on the disordered supper table with a knife.

"Look what you just had, you roughnecks! Can't you be just halfway decent for a little while; Professor, I think you're the only man about here who can be trusted to give Mrs. Reed the airing we promised her. Take her out and walk her through the yard, will you?"

"A genuine pleasure," observed the middle-aged man unctuously.

"Better tie her up, though," suggested Elsie malevolently. "She's liable to make a break even if she is naked."

"I'm sure the dear lady will make no breaks from me," remarked the Professor suavely. "I shall lead her."

And, as Agatha pushed Helen towards him, he promptly enwrapped his fingers in the fleece of her belly.

Staggering, the girl followed him to the door amid laughter. They passed through the kitchen and out into the quasi gloom of the yard.

"A little walk, eh?" he breathed as they passed amid small trees. "Better keep to the grass — for the walks would be hard on bare feet."

And, except for the clutch which the man kept on her genital bush — a clutch whose effect upon the already exasperated senses of the girl made it almost impossible for her to converse — as he seemed to wish to do — this might for a time have seemed just the constitutional exercise for which Helen had expressed a wish.

But now, in a far corner of the yard — and just as the maiden was wondering anew whether all these experiences of hers were not tacitly permitted by Perry Allen as part of a campaign to break down her power of resistance to his wishes — the Professor, who had been nervously looking over his shoulder as if to make certain they were not observed from the lighted windows, suddenly backed her against what seemed to be a small building.

Still holding her by the mons veneris, he fumbled with his other hand for one of hers. Speaking huskily of topics quite alien to what he was doing, he revealed to her touch that already he had managed, as they strolled, to unbutton his fly-front.

And before the startled girl realized what he was doing he had thrust her fingers inward until they touched warm, half erect flesh.

"No, no — oh, Professor — how can you!" she gasped, snatching her fingers away.

"Just to give me a little pleasure — you are so very lovely!" he babbled whisperingly — and again he sought to compel her hand.

"No — no — I won't!"

"It will arise fully, I'm sure, if only you will play with it a little. It is not a young tool, to be sure — but nice — very nice — and see — half standing already merely from consciousness of your nakedness — you have a magical effect upon it!"

"I won't — I won't rub it — for shame!"

"Kneel down, dear. The grass is nice and soft — oh — kneel down and — just put your lips to it."

"I shan't — oh, my God — no!"

"You shall — you must!"

"I won't!"

"I can do lots of nice things for you. I might even — contrive your freedom."

"I'll not buy it — that way!"

"Stand still — you lovely hussy!"

And, crowding her against the vine clad wall, he felt of all her body. Everywhere ran his fingers — and, bending, he hotly kissed her nipples again and again.

Shivering, Helen felt lava begin again to run in her veins as a finger intruded within her body in front and another pressed ominously upon the tiny opening of her fundament. She sighed, gasped and trembled — helpless to prevent this maddening assault.

"Don't — d-don't!" she begged, twisting hysterically. "You drive me — w-wild!"

"I mean to — will you suck me now!"

In her weakness he had forced her to her knees.

"No — I won't — let me up!" she panted.

"If I let you off from that will you fondle it?"

Hardly knowing how it had happened — with her head swimming and her nerves vibrant — the girl found her hand once more within the opened breeches — and remaining there this time. In the disorder of her senses she found it morbidly delicious to hold this warm, half erect thing and to move her fingers upon it gently — to feel it stiffen and grow in her hand.

"Let it out," he whispered.

Feverishly she complied. In the dusk, mere inches from her eyes, swayed a masculinity which was now fully erect — somberly fascinating. With both hands she fondled now both the swollen member and its appendages.

She was past the stage now even of self-reproach — past finding this object anything but entrancing — though not past her fear of what it might do.

And above her head arose terrible whisperings in the deepening night — whisperings which seemed to chant an accompaniment of shamelessness to her shameless act.

"I usually have to be sucked to get an erection like this — it is because you are so beautiful that your mere touches make me this way — if you sucked me I should probably faint with happiness — I could compel you if I were not afraid of your teeth — my little granddaughter — nine years old — you should see her sucking me with her red lips. — her mother taught her...."

Chapter XXXII

For a moment there was silence save for stertorous sighs. The man twitched. He gasped hoarsely:

"Suck — oh, suck!"

Frightened, Helen abandoned her caresses. He crowded her head backward against the vines as he rubbed his turgid organ upon her face and breasts.

"I shan't — I shan't — p-please — let me up!" she quavered.

"If I do — will you lick the head a little — and just take it for an instant between your lips?" he whispered.

"Oh, oh!"

"Will you do it — or I swear I'll fuck you! I'm in a state which would permit me to do it."

"God — please!"

"I have you to myself. The boss can't help you now. I shall be willing to run away afterwards."

"Oh — have mercy! Don't — f-fuck me!"

"Then kiss — lick — let me feel your lips on the knob for a moment."

"Oh — o-o-oh — I have never ...!"

"No matter — kiss, darling — oh — your hot breath — it's wonderful! Now lick a little — yes — like that — under the knob too — oh — great God!"

"Oh — I mustn't — it's terrible to — do this!" came a faint feminine whisper.

"Do you like it?"

"Oh — I'm so ashamed!"

"Take the tip in your mouth!"

"Ah — a-a-r-r-rh — like this?"

"Yes — oh — heavenly — to feel your warm lips about it! Suck a little."

"No — oh — how strange it seems — how odd it tastes!"

"Unpleasant?"

"No — not that..."

"Suck me!"

"No — I'm afraid — and so bitterly ashamed of what I have already done!"

"You shall suck me!"

"I won't!"

"Then here — oh, heavens — let me at you — some way!"

He planted the startled girl impetuously upon her back on the grass. And before she knew what he would be about she felt her legs crowded apart and a hot, wet tongue upon her sex.

And now the palpitating, inflamed Helen — shuddering already with combined lust and shame over what she had done — was at least in territory not wholly unfamiliar to her.

Her nerves shrieked within her that here was a more than worthy successor to the boy Frank and to the girls, Mary and Elsie. Shivering, she succumbed entirely to the lust of the man. It seemed to her that that tongue — now penetrating, now merely licking the exterior — drew from the core of her being the essence of her body.

Heat and light passed in flashes before her blinded eyes as the tongue of this male ravaged her. She gasped and tossed upon the turf.

And suddenly she was aware that he had altered his position and raised his head. He was speaking — and she extended an almost lifeless hand in submission to his injunction. She grasped his virility — and, with fingers no longer lifeless, she rubbed it lasciviously while he resumed his intoxicating lingual play.

Twice the man drew a moist tribute from her glands before at last he shot upon the turf, groaning with delight, his own discharge. And immediately — an indefatigable toiler in a vineyard — which he had discovered to be deliciously prolific — he bent his head yet again to extract from the writhing girl another emission.

After a while he took her to a little, old fashioned pump in the yard for a necessary freshening up before returning to the house. But even with this cool laving, the face of Helen was somewhat pale — sufficiently so to cause Agatha to look at her oddly — when the girl was again led by her genital bush into the house.

Held in leash about her only by fear of the absent chief and by the authority in guarding the prisoner which he had conferred upon Agatha, the members of this strangely assorted gang crowded on the heels of Helen now to watch her bathed and put to bed.

The nerves of the girl — somewhat flaccid if not calmed by her treatment by the Professor in the yard — grew tense once more when Agatha, as if rewarding the men for good behavior in the face of immense temptation, permitted Bill and Mike to wash and to caress the lovely prisoner from head to foot and to attend to all her nightly toilet.

And the coarse, herculean men — who had treated the lust crazed Susan with a vicious, perverse lack of the least consideration in the attack upon her which Agatha had directed — now found amazingly delicate and subtle means of soothing yet exciting anew the virgin wife with whom they were permitted such liberties.

Even while their virilities gorged their distended breeches and their senses clamored for this nugget of white, sheer beauty, their great hands fluttered over the tender breasts and buttocks of the girl and between her legs with such deft touches as made her sigh with shame and with rising desire.

Yet Mrs. Reed well knew by this time the lightness of the invisible barrier which withheld these magnificent animals from such complete assaults upon her body as — to her mind — would have constituted "ruin" for her.

Frantic and convulsed under the deft touches which continued even when Agatha held the nightgown poised above her scarlet cheeks in order to clothe her for bed, Helen looked in silent pleading at the smiling woman in dumb request that these caresses be checked — for, indeed, the girl knew that her clitoris swelled and extended towards those swollen sexes which flaunted themselves almost as if uncovered under her eyes — and she feared that she might be tormented into a crazed clamor of request for her own violation.

Agatha's smile broadened. But she had mercy to the extent of dislodging the indefatigable hands from the snowy young body of the girl and slipping the nighty over her head.

And Helen, glancing with shamed eyes as she slipped into bed, saw that Mary had pounced upon her husband's sex and young Elsie upon that of Mike — and that these prominences were being lasciviously molded and the buttons detached even as the cortege swarmed from the chamber.