A Congratulatory Letter to Mr. Robin

It was about this time that Mrs. Robin gave birth to a fine boy.

I have not spoken of her since our first interview after her marriage in the summer house, when all of us went into town to bring out Miss Donald.

We had only had two stolen interviews since that time, which I have not mentioned, because they were too hasty and with too little comfort to have been thoroughly enjoyed; then she became too heavy with the child to afford me any further opportunity.

Mamma wrote a congratulatory letter to Mr. Robin, wishing him joy at the advent of a son and heir, little dreaming that her own son was the father thereof.

This brought a visit from Mr. Robin to beg that Mamma would kindly become godmother to the little fellow.

My mother at once assented and asked who the godfathers were.

He said an uncle, from whom they had expectations, had consented to be one, but he was at a loss to know whom to ask as a second.

"Why not ask Alexander? He was always very fond of your wife as his governess, and he, too, has an uncle from whom we hope some day to receive something handsome."

"That is a very good idea of yours, and if you will kindly send it to Alexander, I shall put it to him, and if he consents, it saves me all further trouble."

I was sent for, and, you may be sure, accepted immediately, thanking Mr. Robin for the honor he did me and hoping that Mrs. Robin would be equally agreeable that I should be godfather, although so young.

"Leave that to me; my dear wife is so attached to me that my wish is her law, so do not make yourself uneasy on that head."

It may well be supposed that I was not at all uneasy, but I am quite certain that it was the very thing Mrs. Robin would have proposed if she had not been withheld by prudence.

We heard afterwards from Mr. Robin that she had simulated objections on account of my youth, but the very first moment she could say a word to me in private, it was to tell me what delight it had given her that her husband should have fulfilled in the matter the very wish nearest and dearest to her heart.

The ceremony eventually came off as had been proposed, but it was at very rare intervals that I could find an opportunity to renew our old combats in the field of Venus. Meanwhile, I had no reason to regret this as far as the indulgence of my erotic passions went, because, for nearly two years, that is, until I had passed my eighteenth birthday, I continued to enjoy uninterrupted bliss in the arms of the luxurious and fascinating Miss Donalnd or in orgies with her and my sisters, which culminated in every excess of venery capable of being enjoyed by three women and one youth.

In fact, we all indulged rather too freely, if I may judge from the fact that, at least to Miss Donald and myself, the rod had almost become a necessity, and occasionally even my sisters admitted it gave them a fillip.

Under the able tutorship of Miss Donald, we became the most perfect adepts in every voluptuous indulgence of lubricity.

But I must also give her credit for never neglecting our education.

Indeed, I may say it was gained by the intimate union of our bodies. For that estimable woman impressed upon us that to keep her friendship and confidence, we must do justice to her teaching.

I have already said her system of instruction was very superior to anything we had previously known, and now that she had won our unbounded love and affection, there was nothing we were not ready to do in school to second her efforts for our mutual improvement.

She had very superior attainments—she spoke French and German like a native, had sufficient knowledge of Latin and Greek to ground me well in them, and her knowledge of music was very superior.

I have hardly ever heard anyone with a more charming touch on the piano.

In the two years that followed our first orgie, we made really astonishing progress.

We all spoke French very fairly, had a pretty good knowledge of German, especially Suzy, who really spoke it well; as for myself, I was well up in French, fairly so in German, and had a very good groundwork in Latin and Greek.

It was about this time that an event happened that completely changed the order of my life. My mother had hinted that I had some expectations from an uncle.

These were very vague. He was my father's brother, but they had never agreed, and we were almost strangers to each other.

He died, and one day we were all surprised, not to say delighted, to hear from his executor, Mr. Nicolas, a rich merchant in London, that my uncle had left my mother four hundred pounds a year as long as she did not marry again, but at her death the said annuity was to be divided between my two sisters, independent of any coverture.

The residue and bulk of the property were settled on me, under trust to Mr. Nicolas until I was of age, with a request that I should be brought up to the law and entered as a barrister in the Inner Temple.

Further, a sum of five hundred pounds was allowed for a new outfit, in every way becoming to all of us. Mr. Nicolas announced that in a fortnight he would take the opportunity of being in our neighborhood to come over and make the necessary arrangements consequent upon the altered state of affairs.

He added that the residue of the property would yield about one thousand pounds a year and that, therefore, my education must be looked at more closely than it probably has been. There was, indeed, a change.