Join the Dots

From Uniform Girls 19, following on from Bringing it to Life.

By the Wednesday of Christina’s week with Sir Richard, the pretence that she is there to assimilate the feel of her part as a Victorian maid has worn very thin, although it is still maintained superficially so as to provide each of them with a face-saving front behind which to hide. Without it, Sir Richard would be obliged to appear undisguised in the role of villainous lecher, and Christina as the star-struck hopeful that she is, ready to sacrifice all for her art — or if not for that, then for the promise of fame and fortune. Fortunately she has not made the mistake of demanding of Sir Richard, ‘What do you think I am!’; Sir Richard would doubtless have been unable to resist the cliched riposte, ‘We have established what you are, Madam; now we are merely haggling over your price.’ As it is, however, the maid still pretends that she is there purely to get the feel of her part, while Sir Richard feels her parts for her and pretends that he really is being as helpful as he can.

Presently, having been allowed to pull her knickers back up and cool the blushes of her bottom and her cheeks with a cold flannel, Christina is hanging about on the upper landing, awaiting the ‘master’s’ pleasure. Not that her knickers will be staying pulled-up for very long; it is fast becoming apparent to the young actress that Victorian maids’ knickers were most likely manufactured without elastic — certainly a girl wouldn’t have needed any knicker elastic in the employ of a Victorian like Sir Richard!