'Oh! Captain Devereaux! For shame!' cried out Amy.

'Do be quiet!' exclaimed Fanny. 'Captain Devereaux is quite right, Amy, and you know it.'

Amy laughed and seemed uneasy and remained silent.

'Well! I was thinking all the way down to Brighton of all those charming charms which were now mine and which I was literally burning to possess myself of, but ever and anon would come the thought how might I do it? How was I to dare to lay a hand on my Louie which must startle her modesty, however much her thoughts may have run on the consummation of our marriage? Such thoughts in her I considered not at all unlikely, for modest and virtuous as my Louie was I knew from her general demeanour that, although innocent, she could not be ignorant.

'Afterwards Louie told me that similar conflicts had been plaguing her. She longed for my marital embraces on the nuptial couch with great ardour but she dreaded the first steps. Oh! she longed to give herself to me she said but she feared that in so doing I might lose something of that valued respect for her which I had constantly shown. She feared to be immodest. How could she give me her naked charms without doing that which from her babyhood she had learnt to look upon as immodest to a degree? No wonder we felt an unnatural degree of restraint, a kind of fear of one another, for although when passion drives hard two lovers can be absolutely and unashamedly naked to one another, without such passion that nakedness which ought to be so glorious and so divine may be degraded to indecency and nastiness.'

'I cannot imagine it ever being anything else!' exclaimed Amy, vigorously caressing herself between her thighs. 'However -'

'Amy I wish to goodness you would be quiet and let Captain Devereaux tell his story!' cried Fanny petulantly. For some time she had been walking with her own hand constantly on her thrilling little cunt, quite indifferent whether I noticed it or not. I pretended not to do so, however.

'Well!' I resumed, 'at last we arrived at Brighton. Having eaten our dinner we tried to appear calm to one another. Louie ventured to sit on my knees with her arms round my neck but was careful not to press her bosom against mine. Having exhausted every available topic of conversation and, I admit, having behaved like a pair of fools, so terribly afraid were we of one another, I ventured to hint that it was time to go to bed. "Oh!" said Louie (hiding her hot and blushing face in my neck), "not yet, Charlie darling! It is not half-past ten! I never go to bed so early!" Then for the first time did I pluck up a little courage. I kissed her over her lips and I whispered, "This is our wedding night, my darling, darling Louie."

'She darted at me one quick little look, then cast down her eyes, gave me a kiss and whispered, "Well don't come up too soon, there's a good fellow. Oh! Charlie! I wish it was tomorrow!" she jumped up and ran out of the room.

'Thus having ventured to hint at what was to follow on this our wedding night I felt inspired with some degree of courage and with courage came desire in floods far greater than I had yet experienced with Louie. I literally burned to have her! How long would it be before I might go up? There was a clock on the mantelpiece and it seemed to take an hour to mark one minute. At the end of ten minutes I could stand it no longer. I was in real pain – for you must know if passion means pleasure it means pain too until it is indulged.'

Here Fanny looked at me and pressed my hand. Ye gods! I wished Amy anywhere else but where she was. My voice trembled as I resumed.

'On going upstairs to our bedroom I saw Louie's pretty little boots outside the door. I hailed this as a good omen. I picked them up and kissed them and then, giving a little warning knock but without waiting to be told to come in, I turned the handle and entered. Louie was in her nightdress, just getting into bed. She gave a little cry, "Oh! you have come sooner than I expected!" and she huddled herself under the clothes showing only the upper part of her face. Oh! once she was in bed I seemed to shake off my most unnatural cowardice. I closed the door and running over to her I turned the clothes off her face and neck and I put one arm round her shoulders and rained the most burning and ardent kisses on her sweet lips; at the same time I slipped my hand into her bosom and for the first time took possession of the two most beautiful globes which adorned it. Louie did not draw back. She in no way tried to prevent my caressing her there. I was more than tempted to let my hand stray much lower and to seek for the temple of love of which the closely barred door is to be found at the foot of the forested hill sacred to the goddess of love!'

'Gracious!' cried Amy. 'Where and what is that?'

'As if you did not know, Amy!' exclaimed Fanny indignantly.

'You will soon hear, Amy,' said I. 'Well! I did not do so. Louie had both her arms around me and held me tight but I should have liked to have undone the front of her nightdress altogether and to have kissed the beautiful breasts I had found there, but poor Louie, who would have liked me to have done that too, was still a prey to the struggles of her dying modesty. At last I slipped my hand under her armpit and tickled her. With a loud shriek she let me go but she did not cover herself up any more. She lay looking at me with really longing eyes whilst I rapidly undressed. I put my watch on the table. I managed to get off my clothes and put on my nightshirt without offending modesty very much and I was just going round to the other side of the bed to get in when Louie told me I had not wound my watch and that she had not wound hers either. "Oh!" I cried, "let them run down, my Louie, never mind now!" "No!" said she, "Charlie darling, don't let us begin our married life by leaving undone anything which we ought to do." Oh bother! To please her I wound up both watches with a hand trembling with excitement and then jumped into bed.'

'Did you not blow out the candle?' asked Amy.

'Amy! if you interrupt any more,' cried Fanny angrily, 'I will ask Captain Devereaux not to let you know what happened next.'

'No, I did not blow out the candle, Amy, Louie said something about it but I pretended not to hear. I jumped into bed and put my arms around her and I hugged her to me. For just a moment she resisted a little stiffly but the next moment she yielded; she hid her face, which was all on fire, in my neck and whilst I kissed her frantically I put down my hand and gently drew up the veil which interposed itself between me and those glorious charms which could not much longer be kept from me or remain virgin. With as much delicacy as possible I passed my trembling hand over the smooth surface of her exquisite thighs until I reached the "bush with frizzled hair implicit", as Milton says.'

'Captain Devereaux!' shrieked Amy.

'And finding the sweet entrance to the temple I caressed it with an ardour which Louie could feel pouring in burning flames from my fingers. All she did or said was to hug me closer and murmur, "Oh! Charlie! Oh! Charlie." Finding her so quiet I -'

'What?' cried both girls in suffocating tones.

'I begged her to make place for me and let me worship her with my body as I had promised to do in my marriage vows. Gently she turned on her back and putting one knee first and then the other between hers I gently, but in the greatest excitement, lowered myself on to her beautiful body and then awoke every hidden source of pleasure and passion in her as I made the High Priest enter the Holy of Holies. Oh! dear girls, the rapture of that moment! To feel that I was really and truly joined to her and that the same throb which pulsated in and through her equally pulsated in and through me! It was a glimpse of heaven! It was love! Love in its very highest fulfilment. Louie gave herself to me without further restraint – all fear was gone, all ill-placed modesty was banished – and before morning light had come to take the place of that still yielded by the nearly burnt-out candles, my Louie lay perfectly naked – and not red with shame – in my equally perfectly naked embrace. There was not a part of our bodies which we hadn't mutually caressed and gazed upon and eaten up with kisses ardent and plentiful! Our sacrifices were without number! We kept no count! but the entire night was spent in revels which the angels, sexless and passionless, must have envied had they the means of realising, even in imagination, what they were like!'