which she could see and stroke her hands, rather than Jacqueline herself. If Sir Stephen had not forbidden her to touch Natalie, she would have taken her, and the girl would have completely replaced her sister. But she knew that Natalie would soon end up in Roissy, and she was pleased to think that it was because of her that the girl would go on all the suffering and anguish that was prepared for her. O. was impatient to destroy this wall, which separated her from Natalie, but at the same time she found pleasant in this forced short waiting. She told Natalie about it, but she did not believe her.

“Come come here, Jacqueline,” the girl replied bitterly in her voice, “and you would caress her.”

- - Of course, - - O, laughing, answered

- - You see ... - - she fell silent.

O. heard a noise coming from the room of Sir Stephen through the wall. He was probably spying on them now, and she was happy, because she was constantly open for him, that she had nowhere to hide from his hands or his views. This dungeon was sweet to her. O., standing in front of the dresser, which also replaced her dressing table, looked at herself in an old, dimmed mirror, and thought about those engravings of the nineteenth century that had long since disappeared, which she happened to see in her time and depicted the summer and women its languid nudity in the twilight of rich rooms. Hearing the sound of the door being opened, O. turned around so abruptly that the iron rings hanging between her legs touched one of the copper handles of the dresser and rang loudly. On the threshold of the room stood Sir Stephen.

“Natalie,” he said, “there is a white cardboard box down there, take it and bring it here.”

The girl turned around for a minute, and now, putting the box on the bed, she slowly took out of it one by one, wrapped in a thin white paper objects. She took turns unwrapping them and passing them on to Sir Stephen. O. saw that these were masks. More precisely, something in between a cap and a mask; they, apparently, should have covered the entire head, but at the same time left the lower part of the face open: mouth and chin. Hawk, eagle, owl, fox, bull - these were masks made from animal skins or bird feathers. Eye openings, where it was necessary (like, for example, a mask of a lion) were framed by skillfully made eyelashes, while fur or feathers hid the head entirely and fell down to the shoulders of a person who wore a mask. A special wide belt, hidden from the eyes of others under the cover of fur or feathers, was pinched at the back of the head, and the mask fits snugly to the face, and the hard cardboard frame did not allow it to deform.

Looking at herself in a huge mirror, O. tried on all the masks and settled on one of the owl masks. There were two of them altogether, but the one that O. liked was made of light brown and gray feathers. These colors were well combined with the tan on the skin of O., and the feathers completely hid the shoulders of the woman and reached almost to the nipples. Sir Stephen asked O. to remove the mask and wipe the lipstick off his lips, and after a while he added:

- - Now for the Commander you will become an owl. But I want to warn you in advance: you will be led on chains. Please, Natalie, come to my room and find the chain and necessary tools in the first top secret drawer.

After some time, Natalie returned with a chain and pliers. It turned out to be one of those chains that bind guard dogs. Taking the pliers, Sir Stephen opened the last link of the chain and fastened it on one of the rings implanted in the flesh of O. The chain was not particularly long - about a meter and a half in length and a carbine dangled at its free end. Sir Stephen asked O. again to put on a mask, and Natalie took the chain and walked around the room several times, leading O. behind her. Natalie did not force herself to beg. She walked around Sir Stephen three times, and a naked, but partly hidden woman under the mask, followed her.

“The commander was right,” said Sir Stephen at last. - - Pubic hair needs to be removed, but we will do it tomorrow. You still have to walk with this chain, O.

* * *

That evening, O. had dinner with Jacqueline, Natalie, Rene, and Sir Stephen. She was completely naked, and a chain snake wrapped around her hips and was attached to the waist.

Only Nora served them, and O. tried not to look the maid in the eyes: two hours before dinner, Sir Stephen summoned her to Room O.

* * *

The girl from the house of beauty, where O. came the next day, in order to remove her hair, was shaken not so much by the iron and stigma on her buttocks, as by the multitude of fresh wounds from the whip. O. spent a lot of time trying to convince her that she would remove her hair with one jerk when they were held together with hardened wax — it didn’t hurt more than one blow with a whip. In vain she tried to reassure the girl, explaining that she was completely happy and happy with her fate. Alas! After these words, the pity on the girl's face was replaced by horror.

When the operation was completed, O. left the cabin, where she was crucified in order to avoid involuntary jerks. And although she warmly thanked the girl (not forgetting to leave her a significant amount), O. felt that they did not want to see her here. But what did it matter?

She understood that the thick feathers of her mask make up a sharp, shocking contrast with the lack of hair on her body, and the mask adds to her resemblance to the ancient Egyptian figurine: broad shoulders, narrow hips and long thin legs. This image required the skin to be completely smooth.

In ancient times, skilled craftsmen left on the statues of goddesses a gap in the lower abdomen, which was open to the eyes of the crowd and where the double scallop of the small lips could be seen ... Ever pierced this flesh with rings? O. thought about it and remembered the red plump girl she had seen at Anne-Marie, and the story of how the girl’s owner uses this ring ... He ties her to a bed at night. He also demanded that her hair be removed, saying that only this made her completely naked.

O. was worried that Sir Stephen, who so loved to draw her to her for this fluff, would now be displeased. However, her fears were in vain: Sir Stephen said that she excites his blood even more. And when O. put on a mask, he began to caress her as timidly as a child caresses an animal that he really wants to tame.

Sir Stephen did not say anything about where and when he was going to go with her, did not say a word about the people who would also go to visit the Commander. But he visited O. in her room and even slept all the time remaining until evening, lying next to her. Dinner, he ordered to file in the same room.

An hour before midnight, they left the house and got into a pre-cooked Buick. A large dark brown cloak, resembling the burkas of Caucasians, hid her nudity; she was wearing sandals with high wooden soles. Natalie dressed in pants and a black sweater, and in her hand held a chain, the end of which was attached to the bracelet on her wrist with the help of a carbine.

The car was driven by Sir Stephen. The moon illuminated the road with its silver light, treetops and houses in the villages, past which they had to drive along a shiny and winding highway. Everything that remained in the shadows was as if hidden behind a layer of Chinese ink. Rare residents, who were standing at the houses, accompanied the curious machine with a closed tarpaulin, with curious glances. In the fantastic moonlight, the olive trees seemed to them silver clouds hovering a meter above the ground, and the cypress trees looked like fabulous birds. The night landscape seemed to them absolutely unreal, as if nothing material remained in it, except, perhaps, smells of sage and lavender.

The road all steeper went uphill. The earth gave away the heat that had accumulated in it during the day, and therefore O. threw off her raincoat from her shoulders, deciding that no one would see her here: the road seemed completely deserted.

A few minutes later the car drove up the hill, which was surrounded by green oak ... Read more →