The Altar of Venus

Chapter III

So pleasantly and agreeably had my first adventure in "frenching" transpired that whatever lingering doubts I may have entertained as to the esthetic considerations involved in the act were dispelled nor did I therefore permit fastidious scruples to deter me from taking entire advantage of such opportunities as came my way.

My experience and observation lead me to believe that the lingual caress is gratefully received by most females, although many through a feeling of shame,will protest hypocritically at first. Their opposition generally melts rapidly under a little persuasion, or perhaps the employment of just enough force to provide an excuse for submission.

Women are by nature more lascivious than men but the precepts and inhibitions which are inculcated in them from puberty to maturity, exercise a powerful restraint, and automatically assume a hypocritical prudery they may be far from inwardly feeling. Few are ever able to completely free themselves of the belief that this pretense must be maintained even with the

men who receive their most intimate favors.

I shall insert here a few episodes which though out of the chronological order of events I have attempted to follow in this biography, will nevertheless not be miss as illustrations of the peculiarities I have reference to.

Once, under a temporary domestic arrangement, I lived with a girl of very ardent disposition, who lent herself enthusiastically to every erotic fancy our youthful passions could suggest, and we were neither of us novices exactly. There was, therefore, no logical reason for the slightest degree of prudery between us.

It was my custom to arise at seven o'clock in the morning, and in order not to awaken her I always dressed and shaved quietly, and slipped out with the least possible noise. One morning I left our apartment at my accustomed hour, ate my breakfast in a nearby restaurant and was about to proceed to my office when I discovered that I had left papers at the apartment which I should have brought with me. So I retraced my steps and, supposing that Gabrielle, my companion, was still asleep, I turned the key quietly, intending to slip in and get my papers without disturbing her.

The door to the bedroom was slightly ajar and as I put my hand on it to open it wide enough to permit my entry, a sight was unex-

pectedly revealed which caused me to remain 'where I was.

Gabrielle was awake, but she was not aware of my presence.

She had thrown back the bed covers, and with her night robe drawn up over her breasts was lying on her back knees drawn up and legs separated. One round white arm was resting at her side but the other, not so innocently occupied, was extended down over her abdomen. Her wrist was moving vigorously-and the tips of two fingers were lost to sight amid the glossy tendrils of hair at the base of her stomach.

In plain, vulgar, everyday words, my little Gabrielle was jacking herself off.

The sight reacted instantly and violently upon my own emotions. My first impulse, after observing the spectacle for a few moments, was to take off my clothes and delay my return to the office for half an hour or so, but it occurred to me that it might hurt her pride to know that I had witnessed her act, thinking possibly I had intentionally spied on her. But even as I hesitated undetermined, the episode came to a sudden conclusion. I heard a subdued gasp, the movement of her wrist was accelerated for a moment, then ceased and she relaxed languidly, closing her eyes. I slipped away from the door and quietly left ths apartment.

The really curious termination of the incident referred to came a fortnight later. Business! matters required that I make a trip from the city which signified three or four days absence from home. While I was discussing the matter with Gabrielle she remarked in a joking way that she didn't know how she was going to "get along without it" during the period of separation, to which I replied:

"Well honey, you can do what you did before you had me, can't you?"

She looked at me in a startled way, and said:

"What do you mean, Gilbert?"

"I mean, you've still got your fingers, haven't you?"

"When the significance of my words dawned on her a wave of crimson passed over her cheeks and to my astonishment she exclaimed with great indignation:

"Why, I never did that in my life!'' "What! Never?"

"No! Never!"

"Not even once, honey?"

On another occasion I was discussing with a feminine acquaintance the subject of suppressed longings and inhibitions. She was twenty-five or twenty-six years old, had been married, but was separated from her husband.

I had expressed it my belief that there was no person living, who did not carry in his or her heart a secret longing for some particular form of sexual gratification which had never been indulged, either because of lack of opportunity or inhibition through fear or shame. Something in the look she cast at me, or in the way she quickly averted her eyes, told me that in her case at least I had hit the nail on the head. Curious to confirm the supposition, I urged her to confess.

"Come now! Own up! Isn't there something naughty you've wanted to try for a long time, but never dared?"

She made no immediate reply but the color of her cheeks was proof enough of the accuracy of my surmise. It took a .lot of coaxing and encouraging, but I finally got the story.

When she was seventeen, she had known a young man who courted her assiduously for a brief period. The courtship had not resulted in anything serious, although he was likeable young fellow. Later he moved from the neighborhood andjshe had never seen him again, though she remembered him with some affection.

Some years later and while married, she had a dream in which this young man figured prominently. In this dream she was standing naked before a tall mirror brushing her hair. While so engaged, he appeared in the room and kneeling on the floor before her he separated the lips of her genitals with his fingers and sucked her clitoris until she had or dreamed she had orgasm. And ever since, she had suffered an inordinate longing, a longing she had never before voiced,, to have a man do it to her exactly as in this dream-she standing naked before a mirror, and he kneeling at her feet as she brushed her hair!

Needless to say, I volunteered to help her convert the dream into immediate reality, but no quicker were the words off my lips than with flaming cheeks she fled from the room, and locked herself in the bathroom, and it was half an hour before I could coax her to come out.

Here was a girl who for years had ardently and passionately longed for a certain form of sexual gratification and yet, when the opportunity was at hand, shame prevented her from taking advantage of it.

Later, I put my cave-man tactics of "take it first and ask afterwards" into effect, and had the satisfaction of "bringing" her several times in rapid succession by the famous French method, although unsupplemented by mirror or hair brushes.

Another instance of feminine curiosity which for naive simplicity and ingenuousness certainly took the prize, comes to my mind with the recollection of a little sixteen year old, whom I sue-

ceeded in coaxing into my room on several occasions while living in a boarding house her widowed mother presided over. Subsequently our meetings were effected late at night after the mother had gone to sleep, the girl slipping into my room when all was quiet in the house. She was an innocent appearing little damsel and I hesitated to take full advantage of the situation until I heard from her own lips that she had already been initiated, and by no other person than her own uncle-a man of forty-five at least, and who lived under the same roof.

According to her story, from the time she was eleven years old he had been in the habit of fondling and caressing her, and fingering her genitals. One morning, some months before I had made her acquaintance, she had gone to his room to awake him. He seized her, and pulled her down on the bed by him

"He pulled my dress up," she confided, "and unfastened my panties. And then he threw the covers off, so that he was all naked. His thing was sticking up, and he rubbed it between my legs. I tried to get away from him but he held me tight. And then he made it go clear inside me. I hurt awful at first, but pretty soon it began to feel kind of good, too. When he let me up there was blood all over my legs and on the bedsheet. He made me get a clean sheet and put it on the bed. And then he wrapped the bloody one up in a bundle, and hid it so mama wouldn't see it. And another time, one day when mama was gone, he did it to me again. He sat down in a chair and unfastened his pants and made me sit on his lap so his thing went up inside of me."

After hearing this interesting history I lost no time in breaking in on uncle's preserves, and thereafter on an average of once a week I enjoyed her company in the still hours of the night, while the rest of the household was wrapt in slumber.

On one of these occasions after she had slipped off her nightgown and was cuddled up in my arms, she whispered:

"If I asked you to let me do something to you, would you let me?"

"What do you want to do to me, sweetheart?"

"It's something … . oh, you'll think I'm awful if I tell you!" and she hid her face against my neck and began to giggle.

My curiosity was aroused as it always is when I see a women giggling and blushing at the same time.

"I'm not easily shocked, sweetheart. What is it you want to do?" -

"I won't tell unless you promise to let me first!"

Bather suspecting that I was destined to be the object of an amateur experiment in cock sucking, I assured her that I was willing to take a chance, and promised my acquiesence.

"Well, I … oh, I'm ashamed to tell you!" .

Thoroughly intrigued, I encouraged her with caresses and coaxing. When the secret was out my surprise as it ingenuous, almost infantile nature was boundless. She wanted nothing more nor less than to masturbate me with her fingers so that, quoting her own words, she could "see it when it squirts out!" Speechless for a moment, all I could do was gasp.

"Is that all you wanted to do, sweetheart?"

Her eyes refused to meet mine, but she nodded her head.

"Well, there it is. Go to it!" and I turned over on my back.

With shining eyes, and flushed cheeks, she extended her hand, and began to work the foreskin up and down. All that was necessary for me to do to help her gratify her curiosity was to lie still and let nature take its course. And a few minutes later she was recompensed with the sight of half a dozen copious jets which suddenly flew upward from between her fingertips, and barely missed striking her in the face in their trajectory.

About the time I was nineteen, chance enabled me to witness something which made a deep impression on me and the recollection of which has always inspired me with a degree of caution and consideration with respect to the forcing on a woman, of any sexual act patently contrary to her inclinations. With this episode I resume the chronological order of my biography.

Shortly before my nineteenth birthday, a commercial establishment in Liverpool, which was indebted to my father to the amount of several hundred pounds, became insolvent and went into bankruptcy. There was a possibility that by being represented at the bankruptcy proceedings, a small portion of this money might be saved and unable to go himself my father delegated me*

Armed with the necessary documentations, and instructions as to my duties I boarded the Liverpool express. It was the first journey of importance I had ever made alone and I was highly elated. I had been provided with a sum in cash sufficient to defray my expenses for the week or ten days I would probably be there, and with the clever idea of diverting a good portion of this money to personal entertainment instead of going to a first class hotel as I had been instructed, I sought for and found a cheap place, where I could get lodgings for a third of the

amount indicated for the purpose.

Although I did not know it at the moment, the place I had selected was a rendezvous for street walkers and prostitutes of low order, some of whom roomed there permanently, others utilizing rooms by the hour, or by the night. My ignorance of this situation was short lived for before a day had elapsed I had taken note of the larger number of females about the place and had observed that they came in accompanied by gentlemen, and ^ent out alone.

This circumstance though intrigued rather than displeased me, and I kept my eyes open, observing with great interest all that was transpiring around me. The women for the most part were of a plane considerably inferior to that of the sporting girls I had come in contact with at home. They looked bedraggled, tired, unhealthy and I saw only a few who possessed attractive qualifications. Their attitude was bold, and I received several plainly worded invitations which, due to my somewhat fastidious taste in female merchandise, failed to awaken enthusiasm.

The second night I was in this place I overheard sounds emanating from the room next to mine, which excited in me a burning curiosity to see what was taking place. There was a connecting door between the two rooms and I examined it carefully to see whether I could find a way to peek through. The keyhole was securely plugged up. A streak of light was visible under the lower extremity of the door, but all efforts to peer under this door were fruitless. Meanwhile, the creaking of bed springs and the murmur of voices increased my excitement. I listened to these significant sounds, with my ear pressed to the door for ten or fifteen minutes, after which they ceased, the light under the door disappeared and the sound of receeding footsteps in the hall told me the occupants had taken their departure.

I heard no more that night, but the next day, just as I was about to enter my room the door of the adjoining one opened, and a girl came out.

She was a girl who might have been any age between twenty-six and thirty, a girl who some years previously had probably been possessed of real beauty. She was slender, and the pallidness of her face was accentuated by a heavy coating of powder. Her lips were painted a too vivid scarlet and the precisely drawn Cupid's bow stood out in startling contrast with the whiteness of her face. Despite her garnish aspect, there was still something attractive about her, and her eyes, as she turned them momentarily upon me, held a, trace of sad wistfulness.

I hoard her door open when she -returned about twelve o'clock that night, but this time she evidently was alone for I heard no sounds but found no way by which visual access to the room be secretly gained. But, while speculating on the subject, an jidea occurred to me. The next day I located a hardware store and purchased a sharp pointed ice pick. That evening I waited until I heard her leave the room. Then I pushed the ice pick through the corner of one of the door panels. I did not dare to make a very large aperture for fear it might be observed, and had to trust to luck that the small perforation would enable me to see into the room when lights were on.

Intending to speak to her in the hall I loitered around the lobby for two hours the following evening, but she failed to put in appearance so I went to my room and tried to pear through the perforation in the door panel. The room was in darkness and I could see nothing. Profound silence indicated that she was not there and I wondered uneasily whether she had left the place for good. However, I decided to stay in my room and wait. I fastened a small piece of pasteboard over the hole in the door panel, so that the light from my side would not betray the stratagem in case she returned suddenly, and selecting a magazine from among a number I had brought with me I lay down to pass the time reading.

I had been sleeping some time when I became aware of the sound of angry voices. At first they scarcely penetrated my consciousness, but gradually I awoke to their significance, and just as I emerged from a state of nebulous uncertainty, into clear possession of my faculties I heard an angry male voice exclaim:

"By God, you will!"

The softer, but also angry^ voice of a female rejoined :

"I will not!"

Jumping from the bed I hurried on tip-toes to the door. The card I had pinned over the hole was still in place but I quickly removed it and applied my eye. For a moment my vision obfuscated by the light, revealed nothing, but as my sight cleared, a strange scene was presented to me.

In the adjoining room, accompanied by the girl I have previously described, was a big, bearded fellow in a sailor's uniform. The female was completely clothed, apparently exactly as she had come in from the street, except that she had removed her hat. The man was standing near her. The front of his pants was unbuttoned, and from the opening there projected in full erection, a cock which to my startled eyes appeared to be nine or ten inches in length.

The woman was standing before him in an attitude of defiance, her eyes blazing. From bits of the conversation, oaths, curses and threats which came to my ears, I gathered that he was .trying to make her take it in the mouth and that she refusing the honor. It seemed that in his acceptance of her solicitation when she accosted him in the street he had stipulated the "French" method, she had said nothing to the contrary. Probably the poor girl expected to content him with something of a lfess disagreeable nature once she got him to the room.

"If you didn't want it that way why in hell didn't you say so?" he hissed, his face contorted with rage. "By God, you can't play me for a blooming fool!"

And then before my astounded gaze his hand suddenly shot out, and entwined itself in her hair. In grim silence, broken only by the scuffling of feet on the wooden floor, began a struggle which literally held me spellbound.

The woman fought valiantly to free herself, but subjugated by the cruel grasp of her hair was relentlessly forced to her knees. His fingers twisted themselves more firmly in her tresses and the next instant his cock was pressing and rubbing against her face and lips. She tried to evade the contact by turning her head sidewise but again his clutch on her hair tightened, and irremissibly, her face distorted with pain, she was forced to yield. Her lips parted and first the head of his cock then three or four inches of its length, disappeared between them.

Her head, imprisoned between his hirsute hands, was now impelled rapidly backward and forward, and between her distended lips that incredibly enormous cock slid back and forth.

I watched with bated breath, frozen, incapable of movement, my eyes glued to the tiny aperture.

Five minutes of more humiliation lasted. I perceived his body stiffen out in response to orgastic reactions; he forced as much of his cock into her mouth as he could and held her head still. From his rigid posture and the strained expression on his face, I knew that he was ejacu-lasting in her mouth. I heard some choking, gasping sounds, saw her eyes roll upward and fix themselves on his face and on her own countenance, pitifully pallid and distorted, such an expression of hate as I have seldom seen reflected on a woman's face.

His hands relaxed their grasp on her tresses, and he withdrew his cock from her mouth. It had already begun to lose its rigidity and was beginning to sag downward. 'As soon as she was released, she sank down on her hands and knees and began spitting out great mouthfuls of slimy fluid.

Paying no more attention to her, the man buttoned up his clothes, threw a few coins on the bed, and walked out.

She remained on the floor for several minutes after he had gone, spitting and hawking, then dragging herself to her feet, she went to a corner of the room beyond my range of sight. But I did not need to see to know what she was doing for the sound of splashing water, followed by a long period of gargling and spitting, spoke plainly enough of her effort to cleanse her mouth of the pollution to which it had been subjected. When she was again in my line of vision, she undressed and put on her nightgown. As she {stepped to the side of the bed, her eyes fell on the coins which were still lying there. She picked them up, looked at them pensively for a moment, and then hurled them across the room. The next instant, the room was plungled into darkness. With muscles cramped and aching from uncomfortable posture, I too, slipped into bed, to lie awake until daylight, reviewing the sordid drama I had witnessed.

At the age of twenty-one, my naturally active disposition, coupled with requirements for cash now considerably in excess of the allowance provided by my father, impelled me to begin thinking of making my own living.

My father would have preferred that I continue my schooling a few years longer, but I was not of a very studious nature, and when he saw that I was determined he interposed no further objection and suggested a junior clerkship with the firm in which he was interested. This would have been an advantageous arrangement in many senses, but to me it had inconveniences. My father and I were of distinctly different types. His ideas were strict and inclined toward the puritanical. His constant reproval of what he considered dissipations on my part annoyed me vastly and interferred with my pleasure. The truth is, he never knew the half, but what he did know or guess was enough to maintain between us a certain amount of animosity. I was headstrong, resentful of any restraint and not wishing to be too closely subjected to his observation, declined the opportunity and announced an intention of finding something for myself. His skeptical attitude as to my capability to do this stung my pride, and made me even more de? termined.

For weeks I assiduously answered advertisements with no other results than a few fruitless interviews with firms which invariably required services of a nature which a lack of experience disqualified me from fulfilling, and then, when I was about ready to give up in despair, my efforts were rewarded. I was summoned to and obtained employment in the office of a well

known financier, a man whose. diversified interests extended across half the globe; banks in England and Scotland, diamond mines in Africa, railroads in South America. I was employed to act in capacity of personal assistant to this man, A little which though flattering of sound turned out in reality to mean nothing more than I was sort of glorified office boy and messenger. Nevertheless, the fact that my duties kept me in personal contact with the great man, gave me a certain prestige not enjoyed by other employees, most of whom occupied positions of far greater importance.

My employer turned out to be a man of quick and irrasible temper. His depreciative, and often unnecessarily offensive criticisms soon inspired me with a cordial dislike for him. However, I put forth my best efforts, constantly endeavoring to please him, and before long I began to sense the fact that I was rising in his estimation. Within a short time more important duties were being confided to me, though curiously enough, as his confidence in me increased, my antipathy toward him also grew space and I came to despise him whole heartedly for his arrogance and boorish-ness.

One afternoon when I returned after executing an errand which had taken me to a distant part of the city I saw a young woman leaving his

office. With an ever appreciative eye for feminine pulchritude, I appraised her trim figure, gowned with the simple elegance which bespeaks both taste and wealth. My gaze, starting at the faultlessly shod little feet traveled upward, and rested on a face of such marvelous beauty as had seldom been my lot to behold.

I have always been a bit more partial to brunettes, than to light complected women, influenced possibly by the popular superstitution that brunettes are more passionate than blonds, a supposition which experience has demonstrated to me without foundation. In this instance however, my inclinations suffered a sudden reversal. The young woman on whom my attention was blond. A blond whose skin was the texture of flawless immaculate ivory; whose tresses, visible below the brim of a fashionable little toque, clung around her ears and neck in ringlets of spun gold and in whose violet tinted eyes was reflected all the glorious splendor of ardent young womanhood. In brief the most exquisite, the daintiest, the most seductive bit of feminity imaginable.

For a few fleeting moments only was I permitted to regale my eyes with this delectable vision, and then it passed from my view.

"Who is she?" I gasped, addressing my inquiry to a nearby clerk.

The fellow turned a fishy eye on me and responded superciliously:

"No! If I knew I wouldn't be asking. Who is she?"

"She's the chiefs wife."

More questioning of other employees evoked supplementary information. Our employer had married this girl about four years previously; she was of titled parentage and in her own rights.

My admiration, based on nothing more than one brief glimpse, grew to infatuation. Past loves faded into insignificance, and never did I more ardently long to possess a woman than I did this one. As my mind became more and more obcessed with the infatuation, my dislike for the man who was the rightful possessor of this gem of loveliness increased and for the first time in my life I felt the stinging lash of dominating, unrestrainable jealousy.

I learned that on some occasions she came to the office, and day by day I looked forward to another glimpse of her, with hungry anticipation. It was two months before the longing was gratified, and then I saw her again. She was, or so seemed to me, even more lovely than I had first imagined and so rapt was I in the contemplation that my attitude was observed by other employees and after she had gone I was forced to listen to many jibing witicisms.

During several succeeding weeks I ceaselessly dreamed and thought of this woman, not with exception or hope, but with that blind adoration which finds its only solace in silent, unrequited worship. I had brief glimpses of her once or twice a month, and ultimately it seemed to me that as her glance momentarily met mine, there was an expression of understanding in it, as though she felt, or divined my adoration.

I had been working for nearly a year when my employer summoned me to his office one afternoon.

"Gilbert, here is a little matter I want you to take care of. The wife's private secretary is away on a vacation, and until the girl returns, I have instructed her to send for you once a week to assist her with the household accounts.

The electrical effect of this communication upon me may be easily imagined. At last! An opportunity to be near, if but a few moments to the hitherto unapproachable Goddess of my dreams. I could scarcely conceal my elation as I assured him I would be delightful to be of service to his wife. But how delightful he certainly did not suspect.

It must not be supposed that I was beguiling myself with any fantastic hopes. No; for once, and despite the success with which most of my

previous amorous campaigns had been waged, I was infatuated with a woman I considered far beyond my reach. To me she was little less than a deity; the possibility that she might descend into my sphere of life and being was not entertained even in my wildest dreams. The lines of caste are well defined in England. She was the essence of aristrocracy; I was a plebian, completely outside her world. I expected nothing.

Six days later a message was laid on my desk requesting me to report at the house.

A taxi conveyed me through the city's most exclusive residential section, along flower bordered streets under leafy bowers of foliage, and I shortly ha,d my first glirtipse of my employer's residence. It was a veritable castle of stone architecture, almost concealed under climbing ivy beautiful vines and trees.

In answer to the clang of a .heavy brass knocker, appeared a trim, luscious little maid gowned in a short tylack dress, over which a white lace edged apron was neatly draped. Her plump legs were admirably displayed in glistening silk and these, together with other obvious charms would have captured my heart in a minute, if it had not been otherwise occupied to fullest capacity.

Upon being informed of my identity, she ushered me into a reception hall, and while I gazed with admiration at the tasteful splendor, she went to notify her mistress of my presence.

On the interview which followed I shall dwell but briefly for intoxicatingly pleasurable as it was to me nothing transpired which fits well into this naughty biography. In the intimacy of the small study to which my employer's wife conducted me, she seemed more delectable, and desirable than ever, and it was with the greatest delight I found that my presence would be needed once a week during the absence of the secretary. The work was nothing more arduous than the figuring of domestic accounts, the writing and recording of checks issued in payment to merchants, and represented less than two hours of time. At its conclusion she called the maid requesting that I be served with refreshments, and shortly thereafter I departed. During the interval we had been together her attitude toward me had been friendly, but entirely impersonal.

Four successive visits transpired, during which I feasted my eyes and tortured my soul with more or less surreptitious contemplations of her charms. On the fifth, last, and epochal occasion of our meetings, I was conducted into the little private study as previously and was soon engaged in putting the domestic accounts in order. It was to be my last visit, for the absent secretary was returning in a few days, and there would be no further occasion for my presence. The object of my idolatry entered the room and seating herself in a huge leather cushioned chair near me, began to look over the tradesmen's bills, initialing them one by one, and handing them to me to be recorded for payment. /

Glinting under the rays of sunlight which filtered into the room, through the interstices of lace curtains, golden ringlets of hair, tied with a single ribbon at the base of her neck, rippled down over shoulders and back in riotous profusion. Draped loosely about her body, was a dressing gown or lounging robe of black velvet, trimmed with a fringe of pure white ermine down the front and around hem, sleeves, and neck. This strikingly beautiful garment was not buttoned, but was sustained with a silken girdle carelessly knotted about her waist. In a sitting posture the lower edge of this robe hung just below her knees, and her legs, visible from the knees down, were clad in the sheerest of silken hose through whose translucent weave, the snowy whiteness of flesh beneath was discernible.

The combination of circumstances that day seemed to have been arranged painstakingly by Destiny. Or did the lady herself have a hand in the arranging?

The intimate garment, her closer than usual proximity, 4;he casual touch of a strand of hair light as thistle down against my cheek as the leaned over me to make an observation about an entry in the small ledger, all contributed to provoke in me a veritable torment. The room was scented by some perfumed essence emanating from her hair, body and garment, the air was vibrant with an undefined but palpable atmosphere of eroticism.

The chair in which she was sitting was one of those heavily padded, amply built affairs with an inclined back. A slight frown passed across her face as she glanced over a bill from an establishment which supplied most of her wearing apparel. I paused, waiting for her to conclude her examination of the account and as I waited, my eyes fixed on her she changed her position slightly raising one of the silk clad legs across the knee of its companion.

In the position in which she was sitting, she was not fronting me directly but rather to one side. The movement she made in crossing her legs caused the folds of the lounging robe, loosely tied, to separate slightly and bulge outward above the cord around her waist. And through the aperture so fortuitously provided, immediately became visible an exquisitely rounded breast of alabaster whitness, crowned with a tiny rosebud nipple.

Seemingly she wore no undergarment beneath the fur trimmed rdbe! And as though this entrancing sight were not enough to suffocate me with emotion the raising of her leg had also elevated the border of the garment and above the purple silk band which supported her. hose, a brief space of naked thigh was visible. Those bits of white flesh held my gaze like magnets, and with my eyes first on one, then on the other oblivious tp everything else in the world, I continued to look, and as I looked a thought involuntarily formulated itself in my mind.

"I'd give a year of my life just to put my mouth on her cunt!"

A prolonged silence suddenly impressed itself upon gie and brought me back to earth. Guiltily I raised my eyes to hers. Those violet eyes instead of being fixed on the bill in her hands were contemplating me in a speculative, half sardonic manner.

Guessing that she was conscious to some extent of my emotion, the blood rushed to my face.

"What are you thinking about, Gilbert?" she asked dryly, while the ghost of a smile hovered about her lips.

She looked at me, apparently surprised at the

ingeniousness of my answer and then suddenly-broke into peals of silvery laughter. Relieved but still greatly embarrassed, I sat in silence, hardly daring to meet her gaze. When the laughter subsided she laid the bill down and murmured in a low, insinuating voice:

"Gilbert, what would you do for me?"

"Anything!" I answered fervently and without hesitation this time*

"Anything!"

"Anything?" and the word was repeated with a slow, deliberate insistence which I comprehended held some special significance.

I looked at her intently in an effort to divine her meaning, but though there was a smile on her lips the violet eyes were inscrutible.

"Anything!" I repeated, putting all the emphasis I could into the all embracing word.