arance. My
features were classically regular, my skin of dazzling whiteness, my
shoulders were gracefully rounded and my bust faultless in its
contours. My more secret charms I shall describe at some future time
when I shall have to expose them to the reader's gaze.

I have said that up to the age of seventeen I had never experienced the
slightest sexual desire. The spark of voluptuousness which has ever
since burnt so fiercely in my breast was destined to be lighted up by
one of my own sex. Yes, dear Laura, it was you who first taught me the
delights and joys of love; it was you who first kindled that flame of
desire that has caused me to experience twelve years of delirious
bliss; it was to your gentle teaching, sweet friend, that I owe my
initiation in all the mysteries of the Court of Venus; it was your soft
hand that pointed out to me that path of pleasure--and all the delight
shown on the wayside. The incident happened in this manner:

About three months before I left school we were told one morning that a
new music and French teacher would take her abode in B-- Seminary the
next day. We were all extremely anxious to see her, and at the expected
hour she made her appearance. Her name was Laura Castleton, and her
father lived in St. Mary's County, Maryland. She was a brunette, about
twenty years of age, and one of the most beautiful girls I ever saw.
She was nearly as tall as myself, but considerably stouter, and her
body was molded in a most exquisite manner. Although her eyes were very
black and her hair like the raven's plume, her skin was as white as
alabaster. Her teeth were as regular as if they had been cut of a solid
piece of ivory, and her hands and feet were fairylike in their
proportions. I was the eldest girl in the school and Laura immediately
made me her companion. She was exceedingly intelligent, well educated,
and well read. I was soon attracted to her and we became inseparable.
We would pass all our spare time reading to each other or in
conversation on literary subjects. I agreed to love her with my whole
heart, and was never happy outside of her company.

"Laura," I said to her one day when we were walking on the playground
with our arms around each other's waist, "why can't we sleep together?"

"Would you like it, Kate?" she asked, bending her black eyes upon my
face with a peculiar gloom in them which sent the blood rushing to my
cheeks--but why and wherefore I did not know.

"Indeed I wou