What a sight. The rod has made her bottom blush finely. It’s best to make her feel sore a few days, or she will soon forget it, and relapse into her old ways.”
The drawers were unbuttoned, and I could feel they were quite pulled down my thighs, [15] ]exposing the entire surface of my smarting rump, but I had only a few moments for reflection before the blows fell again in rapid succession, cutting, tearing, and scratching the skin, whilst the boiling blood in my veins seemed to throb as if it must spurt through the pores at every burning touch of the rod.
My head was pressed against the tumultuously heaving bosom of my governess, and notwithstanding the intensity of my suffering, I could plainly hear the beating of her heart, and knew that her thighs were tightly compressed together, whilst a strange tremor pervaded her entire frame.
“There, there, that will do,” said Papa, in a very excited tone. “I’ve drawn the blood for her. Now, Miss Dunce, kneel and kiss the rod, and ask your kind governess to forgive you.”
I slipped down on my knees, and hiding my face in my hands in her lap, promised Miss Birch “if she would forgive me now, to be a better girl in future.”
[16]
] “That
will do. I don’t want to be too hard upon Lucille this time. We will leave her to think over her disgrace and shame, and let her beware of the birch again,” said Papa, taking Miss Birch’s hand, to lead her from the room. “This has been a most agitating scene for your governess, who must repose in her private room for a while to recover herself.”
The schoolroom door, which opened directly into her private room, was closed upon me, and the key turned in the lock, but
all my hurts and bruises were insufficient to distract my attention from the peculiarly warm and excited glances which passed from papa towards my governess, whose face was suffused with blushes, and her eyes turned down, as if afraid to meet his ardent looks as they
passed from the room.