haste, Serena, up with her clothes, and open the drawers well, and keep her as steady as possible." Then taking up the instrument of punishment I could see it consisted of five or six long thongs of whipcord, plaited and knotted at the ends, fixed on a very elastic handle.
It was poised in her hand for a moment, and then brought down with stinging force on my exposed buttocks, then again, and again, and again, in quick succession; each cut seemed to sear the flesh as if done by a red hot iron, my piercing screams filled the whole place, and the Superior, her eyes sparkling with ferocious joy jeered me about how I liked the scourge. "How lovely you look, Mdlle. Lucille, as you plunge and scream, and I know the intense agony of every cut; would you rather die now, my little dear? Well, I've a good mind to kill you, outright, only I want to keep you as long as that dear, kind papa of yours is willing to pay! How he must have loved his Lucille, to place
