A rather dreary London day greeted me as I arose in the morning, the grey pale light yet another reminder of the rather depressing northern climes I had recently returned to, but never really escaped from in my thoughts. A late night out with friends after a most stimulating discussion at the London Scientific Foundation dinner the previous evening had rendered me lethargic and un-nimble in my ablutions, in fact having just spilled a trail of urine off the corner of my bedpan in a blurry attempt to relieve myself of whatever libations I had partaken of the previous night.
Absinthe as I recollect, although that may have been a previous night. No. Certainly it was last night, the bitter aftertaste of the wormwood still supporting a waxy coating on the back of my tongue. Most unusual properties, the absinthe, in providing a marked increase in euphoria on ingestion, but a most unappealing after effect on the body the following day, with a trembling and disorientation most unusual as compared to the other more standard digestifs we men are wont to partake of while in amicable groups.
Finishing the ill attempt at what would normally be the thought free endeavor of relieving my bladder, I slowly and methodically finished dressing in my kit and headed downstairs to have a bit of much needed breakfast, thinking vaguely that this may assist my plight.
There was not long to wait. Entering the breakfast nook, I spied upon the table and laid out in the finery befitting a rank of gentleman which, to be truthful, I was certainly not but aspired to be, a lovely breakfast of kippers, boiled eggs with salmon, scones and jam. My maidservant Miss Lillian stood by, hot kettle in her hand and filling up the waiting tea cup with piping hot water.
"Good day!" I exclaimed, more gregariously than I actually felt, for while the smell of the food perked me up substantially, it was not enough to erase the overall lethargy I was still feeling due to the overabundance I had partaken of the night before. Lillian responded in kind, and I realized quite painfully that the sound of another human's boisterous reply was enough to set my teeth on edge and start a throbbing in the front area of my brain.
"G'day, Mister! Oy, and ain't is a lovely one!?"
"Yes, yes, certainly..." I trailed off, looking down at the floor to rest my eyes from the sudden and violent attack of pain I was experiencing.
"Hmm, yes, might I have some of that tea, would be most nourishing."
"Oy, yes sir of course sir!" She finished pouring the tea and then pulled out the chair at the head of the table for me, looking at me expectantly. "Sir?"
"Ah, yes, thank you Lillian." I sat.
"Sir, if I might says, you are not lookin' keenly this morning, is there anything I can get apart from what is already before yeh?" She began to loosen her apron strings.
"Oh my, to be honest I am feeling quite shagged from last nights soiree with Dr. _______ and his lovely new bride, and a spot of tea should do nicely just now."
Lillian continued to pull her apron off, then began to unbutton her top shift. "If yeh don't mind me sayin', sir, I think you need some nuzzling." And with that she pulled her top down over her shoulders exposing a most magnificent full bosom to my intrigued eye, the flesh of her great mammaries supple and smooth. She moved slightly side to side, and the pendulous orbs followed in suit, swaying gently before her, the nipples sitting like tiny dumplings on sweet pink custard cups, tracing parabolas in the cool air before her.
"My goodness, Lillian, we have spoken of such things so many times, have we not?" I was cross with her certainly, as this behavior had occurred on many occasions, but not for several months past. "Really, I thought we were making such progress, and your attention and control were coming along so splendidly."
She then stopped swaying and stood still, her pendulous breasts firming slightly in the cool morning air, the nipples full and pink and round. "I...know, sir, yes I readily do. I cannot fathom what has come over me to do this to you, when you have been so kind and provisional, why certainly I am a lowly 'or to have displayed myself so forthrightly to your sir."
It certainly was not acceptable. Lillian, I am sad and regretful to say, was one of the wards of a most upright and Christian program developed for the unfortunate denizens of a worker underclass, a group of invalids known hardly if at all to the respectable society of London. While blessed by God with a normal appearance of full awareness and lucidity, in combination with intelligence of speech and memory, yet in actuality this underbelly caste possessed severely limited wits and an inability to fend intelligently for even the most basic of human needs for which money is often the sole method of procurement. Due to this, these hardscrabble individuals must likely revert to the basest of methods to survive.
For the men, there is rarely anything other than a sordid life of petty thievery followed by an inevitable incarceration, mainly due to their lack of intelligence in successfully planning and executing even the most rudimentary crime. Their complete lack of wits leaves little other outcome than this dismal end, locked up for years often, only to be released and captured again for the same inept crime, many times just days later.
The women of this disabled group on the other hand, unfortunately, almost always enter willingly due to their limited intelligence, into what women have been known for since the time of the apple and serpent in the garden of Eden. As some would call it 'the oldest profession', there but for the pleasure of the men in their presence taking full advantage of the limited capabilities of these poor women's intellect, the lasses unable to apply even a basic Christian sensibility as relates to the sanctity of one's body. The general gullibility of this side of the equation, moreover, allows that in many instances the remuneration of the said act will not go to the 'pimpo' who is the agent of said individual, but where a reasonably intelligent man can convince the topic at hand that the favors delivered are in fact of a respectable sort, why then the women themselves perform the deliverable in its entirety, then go unpaid and thus rendering the situation even more deplorable.
To clarify my position to the reader, I must reflect now that my feelings on the matter above vary somewhat from the generalization of women being, as is so often surmised, at the sole disposal of men, and declare now my caveat in order to not confuse any readers, of my attitude towards the opposite sex and the workings of society.
While I do think of myself as a liberal minded gentleman of these Victorian times, and have heard even rumblings of a suffragette movement, still the very idea that women would someday have the vote, really I can hardly fathom such a thing. As the motto goes, a woman's place is in the home, and while I would not subscribe to this overly rote saying completely, for after all there may very well be some opportunities for women in the workplace (away from men so as not to create untoward distractions from that efficiency of production of course) I would most assuredly back some type of program in which to harness the energy and dynamism that only the weaker sex can bring to the situation. Oh my! I have just done it again, professing the greatness of a concept while undermining it with my own inherent and limiting attitudes! I shall surely mind this better in the future.
The rambling intellectual distraction I was having with myself on this topic would have driven me quite mad on such a morning, mired in such a lucubratory conflict while the essence of the devils poison sweated out of my physic, were it not again for the issue at hand, that of Miss Lillian and her plight. I had spent many months in the garden of her well being, carefully pruning her ill actions, snipping the deadheads and wandering tendrils of inappropriateness, seeking to form her slowly from a shrubby tangle of disparate behaviors to a gathering stem of lovely roses (albeit not completely bereft of thorns!) sprouting upwards with only the most healthy growth blossoming forth in abundance.
Sincerely, that was my plan and it had been working quite successfully. There was the odd moment out when prior behavior or lack of wit would manifest itself through the sudden relapse such as exhibited this morning, often with the baring of her soft and giving bosom.
