Alice Through the Looking Glass
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 10:27 am
Master William really was a very ingenious young gentleman. Aged fifteen, he had been absorbed in experimental natural philosophy for almost as long as he could remember. Books of natural philosophy were amongst the first he could remember reading. His doting parents had even provided him with his own laboratory in the old box room next to his bedroom – if only to ensure that the more noxious of his experiments were not inflicted on the rest of the household. He spent his waking hours in deep experiment, fiddling with induction coils, or with complex arrays of tubes and lenses, or practicing his photographic skills. The room on the other side of the laboratory was occupied by his cousin Alice, who was residing with them whilst her parents were in India. Alice was eighteen, and very, very vain. She and her cousin were not on friendly terms.
Alice, as she knew very well, had good reason for vanity. She was tall, slender, and extremely pretty, with startling auburn hair. She looked down her shapely nose at her younger cousin, dismissing him as a mere boy of no consequence, and peculiar habits. Instead, she cultivated a steady stream of handsome gentlemanly admirers, smiling coquettishly as they competed for her attention and fluttering her eyelashes beguilingly at them. Master William had little interest in attracting his cousin’s admiration. Just as she thought of him as dull company, he found her shallow and entirely uninterested in the life of the mind. Her conversation revolved around gossip about the latest society scandal, or speculation about what young lady had caught the eye of which eligible bachelor. He was by no means immune to her physical charms, however, and, being a young man of healthy appetites, was keenly interested in finding a way of exploring far more of those physical charms of hers than the social convention of the day allowed. Well aware of how unlikely he was to gain access to her person by licit means, he was resolved to put his philosophical knowledge to carnal use instead. He was intent, in fact, upon experimenting, and Alice was to be his subject.
So it was that with the aim of viewing his cousin more intimately, and having considered the matter – and her – from every angle, he had set about converting his laboratory into a kind of camera obscura. He knew all there was to know about optics, just as he knew all there was to know about electricity and photography. Above the dressing table in her own room (her boudoir, as she called it) Alice had a large and ornate mirror. She sat in front of it nightly, preening and preparing herself for bed. Armed with this knowledge, acquired through ardent observation, and discreet bribing of the maid, William had carefully drilled a hole through the connecting wall that divided laboratory and boudoir, and through the mirror’s elaborate frame, before inserted a series of cleverly contrived little lenses of his own manufacture. It had been so cleverly done that it would require the most diligent inspection to suggest that there was anything amiss. Thanks to the resulting camera obscura effect, an image of his cousin’s room and anything that went on inside it, could be projected onto a screen in his laboratory whenever he desired. Now all he needed to do was wait.
As soon as Alice had retired to her boudoir on the evening after the young experimenter had completed his preparations, William hurried to his laboratory, to be rewarded with the delectable sight of his cousin, wearing only her flimsy chemise, brushing her hair in front of the mirror. The only problem was that the projection was upside-down. He had forgotten in his eagerness that the camera obscura’s image was inverted. Even inverted, his cousin clad in only her intimate undergarments was an arresting spectacle. The clarity astonished even him. He could see clearly the outline of her breasts through the fine fabric, and could admire their mobility as she combed her hair. He felt his manhood stirring, but the fact that Alice appeared to be suspended from the ceiling was too much of a distraction. It was clear that further experiment would be required.
As he entered the laboratory the following evening, he was confident that he had contrived the appropriate adjustments to the apparatus, and he was immediately rewarded. It was as if he were seated in the same room as his cousin as she admired herself in the mirror, again wearing nothing beyond her chemise. The illusion was astonishing. William almost felt that he could reach out and caress his cousin’s alabaster skin, run his fingers through her hair, or trace the contours of her breasts through the thin fabric of her chemise. As he studied her with greedy eyes, he saw her look furtively behind her, almost as if she wished to make quite sure that she was alone. Then, to his astonishment and delight, she whisked her chemise off over her head and he found himself gazing at those glorious breasts, resplendent in their nudity, like two creamy confections, each topped with a bright pink cherry. As he gazed at their splendours, Alice gently caressed her own breasts, still admiring herself in the mirror. As he frantically frigged himself, how William wished that he could capture the scene before him forever.
Master William spent the next several days in feverish experiment. It was not enough, he decided, to simply replace the screen with a photographic plate and turn the camera obscura into a camera. His desire was for very many images of any glorious scene such as the one he had witnessed the previous evening. The solution, he decided lay in the experiments of the strangely named Eadweard Muybridge, who had developed ways of taking multiple photographs in rapid succession, allowing him to seemingly freeze time. That was what he wanted, and after much experimentation that was what William got. The next time sweet Alice sat naked in front of the mirror, caressing and admiring her own nudity, her every movement would be captured for posterity.
A few weeks later, Master William found his cousin alone, lolling indolently in the drawing room. She regarded him indifferently as he approached.
“I know how fond you are of the latest thing in photographic carte de visite, dear cousin, so I thought I might present you with some as a gift. What do you make of these as possible portraits?”
He cast a handful of photographs on the table beside her, and she reached out a languid hand to sort through them. Then she froze in horror, her face turning first pale and then flushing bright red. In one image, she sat naked, holding her breasts in her hands, and lightly pinching her nipples; in another she posed seductively with all her bare charms on display; in yet another, she looked back over her shoulder, with her delectable little bottom visible to all.
“H-h-how. B-b-but h-how,” she stuttered.
“Which one do you think Lord Hardshaft would like best?” asked William, “Or, the Honourable Mr. Cunylove?”
She blanched at the prospect. “You would not dare!” she hissed.
“I really don’t see why not,” he responded reasonably. “Don’t you think they’d enjoy seeing you like this? I know I did.”
In a burst of fury, she gathered the photographs and tore them to shreds. “There,” she said triumphantly. “You have nothing to show anyone now.”
“Cousin, cousin, dear Alice,” I can make as many more of them as I wish! But come, I will make you an offer. I will destroy the originals on one condition. These photographs were taken at a distance, shall we say. Now I would very much like to observe you more closely. If you allow me to examine you more intimately and thoroughly, alone with you in your boudoir, then I swear to you on my honour that I will destroy them.”
She stared at him defiantly. “You are no gentleman, William. How could you imagine that I would contemplate such an indecent thing.”
“As you wish,” he replied. “It was merely a thought. I will see about making new copies of these delightful photographs to send out to your gentlemen friends in the morning post, in that case. Imagine their surprise when they receive them!”
“No, William, please. Have some consideration for me. I am your dear cousin after all. How could you treat me so abominably!”
“Alice, dear, you have not shown me the slightest consideration since you entered this household. Why should I show any towards you?”
Alice coloured again. She was keenly aware of how the world would treat her if those damnable photographs were ever circulated. She realized that, humiliating and demeaning as it would be, she had no choice but to submit to her young cousin’s degrading suggestion.
“If I do as I say, you will destroy these images and the means of making more of them?”
William nodded, laughing quietly to himself.
“Very well,” she sighed humbly, appearing to be closely inspecting her feet. “Come to my boudoir at ten tonight and I will submit there to your lewd desires.”
Promptly at ten that evening, William knocked softly on his cousin’s door and entered. Alice was standing there, beautiful and defiant, glaring at him.
“What do you want me to do first, cousin?” she spat at him.
“Well strip, of course. I want to see you in all your charming nudity, Alice.”
“You will have to help me unhook my dress and unlace my corset,” she muttered in some embarrassment. “Usually my maid, but in these circumstances …”
“Of course, dear Alice,” he replied. “I am entirely at your service.”
Gleefully, William stepped behind his cousin and started to unfasten the hooks at the back of her pale green, silk tea gown. In the process he ensured that she was appropriately positioned in front of the mirror. As she stepped out of her gown, he started unlacing her corset. She flinched as she felt his fingers caressing her as he did so. Her habitual self- assurance was being stripped from her along with her clothing. Soon she was clad in no more than stockings, chemise and drawers.
“I shall let you complete your disrobing yourself,” said William, stepping back from her. She stared at him appealingly, little sign of defiance now. “Is this not enough for you? Am I not humiliated and exposed enough already for your depraved pleasure?”
William had no intention of yielding to his finer impulses, however – indeed, at this moment he possessed none.
“Off with those drawers next, cousin dear!” he insisted.
Alice reached under her chemise and untied the ribbons with trembling fingers, keenly aware as the garment slipped down her legs that she now had only one thin layer of silk between herself and her final inevitable and humiliating exposure.
“The chemise, too, dearest Alice. I can hardly wait to see you in your naked glory.”
Closing her eyes tightly, Alice lifted the hem up and over her head, dropping that last flimsy defence to join her drawers at her feet. Opening her eyes, she moved instinctively to cover her breasts and the auburn triangle that hid her cunny from her cousin’s hungry gaze.
“Tut, tut, cousin, that will not do at all,” drawled Master William mockingly. “Hands at your side, if you please. No, on your head I think, like a naughty little schoolgirl waiting for her whipping!”
Tremblingly, Alice raised her hands to her head. She blushed an even deeper crimson as she felt his eyes on her bare breasts and burrowing into the neat bush of hair that defended her cunny.
William gazed with rapture at the heavenly sight presented by her nudity. He had seen her naked before through the camera obscura, but this was far, far more. He walked behind her to admire her equally shapely posterior. She flinched as she felt him press his body against hers. She knew enough of the ways of men with young women to realize the significance of the hard rod that pushed between her nether orbs. His arms encircled her, and she gasped as he grasped a nipple in each hand, pinching and pulling them.
“Shall I whip you, Alice dear?” her cousin whispered in her ear. “Would that be fitting chastisement for exposing yourself so lewdly to me?”
“Please, no William,” she whimpered, imagining the indignity of being draped naked over her cousin’s lap whilst he spanked her, maybe even with her own hairbrush. The very thought made her warm and damp with embarrassed anticipation.
“What shall I do with you, then, cousin mine? Shall I tickle you? That would be a fine torture. Yes, I shall tie you to your chair and tickle you. What fun!”
He directed his naked cousin over to the chair where she usually sat whilst admiring herself in front of the mirror, and pushed her down on it. Grabbing a handful of ribbons from the dressing table, he tied her arms behind her back, Then forcing her legs apart, he tied each one to a chair leg, exposing, as Alice well knew, her tender little cunny to his lecherous gaze. He knelt between her thighs to inspect her private little slit more intimately. She gasped as he ran a questing finger along its length and probed between her coral lips. This was the ultimate humiliation, she thought despairingly – a boy, not even a man yet, was doing these things to her and she was powerless to prevent it.
William reached out and selected one of the little brushes Alice used to enhance her beauty. She squirmed as he used it to tickle first one nipple, then the other.
“Do you like that, darling cousin?” he teased, and then ran the brush lingeringly along the underside of each breast.
“Please, William, please stop,” she begged as he ran the brush gently across her belly in long, languorous strokes. Alice struggled against her bonds, desperate to escape the brush’s teasing caresses. She squealed and squirmed as her cousin tickled her nipples again, before running the brush slowly down her belly towards her cunny, stopping a mere inch away from her holy of holies. He paused there, and worked his way back up her trembling body, working the brush in delicate strokes back and forth. He circled each of her delicious little breasts again with teasing strokes of the brush, before focussing his attentions once more on her nipples. His cousin seemed particularly sensitive there, he considered.
Abruptly, he abandoned her upper torso and, picking another, finer, brush from the selection on the dressing table, proceeded to torment Alice’s feet. He teased the enticing crevices between each one of her toes whilst she squealed and did her utmost to avoid the brush’s caresses. William directed the brush in sweeping little circles, teasing the tender sensitive soles of her feet. Kneeling between her thighs and looking up at her to enjoy his cousin’s response to the torture, he could both watch her delightful grimaces and the even more delightful sight of her cunny, its lips slightly parted to reveal the glistening pink interior. Slowly, he started to work his way up the inside of her left leg, wafting the little brush teasingly back and forth. Alice gave another little squeal as he arrived at the crease behind her knee and then continued to brush upwards along her inner thigh, getting closer, ever closer to her cunny and its moist little slit.
Again, he paused a mere inch or so from Alice’s quim and started to work his way slowly up her other leg. His cousin was breathing heavily and raggedly by the time the brush had worked its way to her right inner thigh and continued its teasing way upwards.
“Oh William, please, please,” she gasped suddenly. “Please don’t stop there. Tickle my cunny, I beg you. Please, please, tickle my cunny!”
She gasped again as her cousin obligingly ran the little brush along the length of her slit. Her hips bucked and she slumped back in her chair.
Master William slowly stood up and observed his cousin’s supine form.
“I believe I have punished you enough, for now,” he smirked as he untied the ribbons that bound her.
“Good night, dearest Alice. Sweet dreams,” he whispered softly as he closed her boudoir’s door behind her. He was looking forwards already to seeing the look on his cousin’s face the following morning, as he replayed for her the entire animated scene, captured forever on the marvellous recording camera obscura he had spent the previous weeks and days perfecting. Her torment was far from over.
Alice, as she knew very well, had good reason for vanity. She was tall, slender, and extremely pretty, with startling auburn hair. She looked down her shapely nose at her younger cousin, dismissing him as a mere boy of no consequence, and peculiar habits. Instead, she cultivated a steady stream of handsome gentlemanly admirers, smiling coquettishly as they competed for her attention and fluttering her eyelashes beguilingly at them. Master William had little interest in attracting his cousin’s admiration. Just as she thought of him as dull company, he found her shallow and entirely uninterested in the life of the mind. Her conversation revolved around gossip about the latest society scandal, or speculation about what young lady had caught the eye of which eligible bachelor. He was by no means immune to her physical charms, however, and, being a young man of healthy appetites, was keenly interested in finding a way of exploring far more of those physical charms of hers than the social convention of the day allowed. Well aware of how unlikely he was to gain access to her person by licit means, he was resolved to put his philosophical knowledge to carnal use instead. He was intent, in fact, upon experimenting, and Alice was to be his subject.
So it was that with the aim of viewing his cousin more intimately, and having considered the matter – and her – from every angle, he had set about converting his laboratory into a kind of camera obscura. He knew all there was to know about optics, just as he knew all there was to know about electricity and photography. Above the dressing table in her own room (her boudoir, as she called it) Alice had a large and ornate mirror. She sat in front of it nightly, preening and preparing herself for bed. Armed with this knowledge, acquired through ardent observation, and discreet bribing of the maid, William had carefully drilled a hole through the connecting wall that divided laboratory and boudoir, and through the mirror’s elaborate frame, before inserted a series of cleverly contrived little lenses of his own manufacture. It had been so cleverly done that it would require the most diligent inspection to suggest that there was anything amiss. Thanks to the resulting camera obscura effect, an image of his cousin’s room and anything that went on inside it, could be projected onto a screen in his laboratory whenever he desired. Now all he needed to do was wait.
As soon as Alice had retired to her boudoir on the evening after the young experimenter had completed his preparations, William hurried to his laboratory, to be rewarded with the delectable sight of his cousin, wearing only her flimsy chemise, brushing her hair in front of the mirror. The only problem was that the projection was upside-down. He had forgotten in his eagerness that the camera obscura’s image was inverted. Even inverted, his cousin clad in only her intimate undergarments was an arresting spectacle. The clarity astonished even him. He could see clearly the outline of her breasts through the fine fabric, and could admire their mobility as she combed her hair. He felt his manhood stirring, but the fact that Alice appeared to be suspended from the ceiling was too much of a distraction. It was clear that further experiment would be required.
As he entered the laboratory the following evening, he was confident that he had contrived the appropriate adjustments to the apparatus, and he was immediately rewarded. It was as if he were seated in the same room as his cousin as she admired herself in the mirror, again wearing nothing beyond her chemise. The illusion was astonishing. William almost felt that he could reach out and caress his cousin’s alabaster skin, run his fingers through her hair, or trace the contours of her breasts through the thin fabric of her chemise. As he studied her with greedy eyes, he saw her look furtively behind her, almost as if she wished to make quite sure that she was alone. Then, to his astonishment and delight, she whisked her chemise off over her head and he found himself gazing at those glorious breasts, resplendent in their nudity, like two creamy confections, each topped with a bright pink cherry. As he gazed at their splendours, Alice gently caressed her own breasts, still admiring herself in the mirror. As he frantically frigged himself, how William wished that he could capture the scene before him forever.
Master William spent the next several days in feverish experiment. It was not enough, he decided, to simply replace the screen with a photographic plate and turn the camera obscura into a camera. His desire was for very many images of any glorious scene such as the one he had witnessed the previous evening. The solution, he decided lay in the experiments of the strangely named Eadweard Muybridge, who had developed ways of taking multiple photographs in rapid succession, allowing him to seemingly freeze time. That was what he wanted, and after much experimentation that was what William got. The next time sweet Alice sat naked in front of the mirror, caressing and admiring her own nudity, her every movement would be captured for posterity.
A few weeks later, Master William found his cousin alone, lolling indolently in the drawing room. She regarded him indifferently as he approached.
“I know how fond you are of the latest thing in photographic carte de visite, dear cousin, so I thought I might present you with some as a gift. What do you make of these as possible portraits?”
He cast a handful of photographs on the table beside her, and she reached out a languid hand to sort through them. Then she froze in horror, her face turning first pale and then flushing bright red. In one image, she sat naked, holding her breasts in her hands, and lightly pinching her nipples; in another she posed seductively with all her bare charms on display; in yet another, she looked back over her shoulder, with her delectable little bottom visible to all.
“H-h-how. B-b-but h-how,” she stuttered.
“Which one do you think Lord Hardshaft would like best?” asked William, “Or, the Honourable Mr. Cunylove?”
She blanched at the prospect. “You would not dare!” she hissed.
“I really don’t see why not,” he responded reasonably. “Don’t you think they’d enjoy seeing you like this? I know I did.”
In a burst of fury, she gathered the photographs and tore them to shreds. “There,” she said triumphantly. “You have nothing to show anyone now.”
“Cousin, cousin, dear Alice,” I can make as many more of them as I wish! But come, I will make you an offer. I will destroy the originals on one condition. These photographs were taken at a distance, shall we say. Now I would very much like to observe you more closely. If you allow me to examine you more intimately and thoroughly, alone with you in your boudoir, then I swear to you on my honour that I will destroy them.”
She stared at him defiantly. “You are no gentleman, William. How could you imagine that I would contemplate such an indecent thing.”
“As you wish,” he replied. “It was merely a thought. I will see about making new copies of these delightful photographs to send out to your gentlemen friends in the morning post, in that case. Imagine their surprise when they receive them!”
“No, William, please. Have some consideration for me. I am your dear cousin after all. How could you treat me so abominably!”
“Alice, dear, you have not shown me the slightest consideration since you entered this household. Why should I show any towards you?”
Alice coloured again. She was keenly aware of how the world would treat her if those damnable photographs were ever circulated. She realized that, humiliating and demeaning as it would be, she had no choice but to submit to her young cousin’s degrading suggestion.
“If I do as I say, you will destroy these images and the means of making more of them?”
William nodded, laughing quietly to himself.
“Very well,” she sighed humbly, appearing to be closely inspecting her feet. “Come to my boudoir at ten tonight and I will submit there to your lewd desires.”
Promptly at ten that evening, William knocked softly on his cousin’s door and entered. Alice was standing there, beautiful and defiant, glaring at him.
“What do you want me to do first, cousin?” she spat at him.
“Well strip, of course. I want to see you in all your charming nudity, Alice.”
“You will have to help me unhook my dress and unlace my corset,” she muttered in some embarrassment. “Usually my maid, but in these circumstances …”
“Of course, dear Alice,” he replied. “I am entirely at your service.”
Gleefully, William stepped behind his cousin and started to unfasten the hooks at the back of her pale green, silk tea gown. In the process he ensured that she was appropriately positioned in front of the mirror. As she stepped out of her gown, he started unlacing her corset. She flinched as she felt his fingers caressing her as he did so. Her habitual self- assurance was being stripped from her along with her clothing. Soon she was clad in no more than stockings, chemise and drawers.
“I shall let you complete your disrobing yourself,” said William, stepping back from her. She stared at him appealingly, little sign of defiance now. “Is this not enough for you? Am I not humiliated and exposed enough already for your depraved pleasure?”
William had no intention of yielding to his finer impulses, however – indeed, at this moment he possessed none.
“Off with those drawers next, cousin dear!” he insisted.
Alice reached under her chemise and untied the ribbons with trembling fingers, keenly aware as the garment slipped down her legs that she now had only one thin layer of silk between herself and her final inevitable and humiliating exposure.
“The chemise, too, dearest Alice. I can hardly wait to see you in your naked glory.”
Closing her eyes tightly, Alice lifted the hem up and over her head, dropping that last flimsy defence to join her drawers at her feet. Opening her eyes, she moved instinctively to cover her breasts and the auburn triangle that hid her cunny from her cousin’s hungry gaze.
“Tut, tut, cousin, that will not do at all,” drawled Master William mockingly. “Hands at your side, if you please. No, on your head I think, like a naughty little schoolgirl waiting for her whipping!”
Tremblingly, Alice raised her hands to her head. She blushed an even deeper crimson as she felt his eyes on her bare breasts and burrowing into the neat bush of hair that defended her cunny.
William gazed with rapture at the heavenly sight presented by her nudity. He had seen her naked before through the camera obscura, but this was far, far more. He walked behind her to admire her equally shapely posterior. She flinched as she felt him press his body against hers. She knew enough of the ways of men with young women to realize the significance of the hard rod that pushed between her nether orbs. His arms encircled her, and she gasped as he grasped a nipple in each hand, pinching and pulling them.
“Shall I whip you, Alice dear?” her cousin whispered in her ear. “Would that be fitting chastisement for exposing yourself so lewdly to me?”
“Please, no William,” she whimpered, imagining the indignity of being draped naked over her cousin’s lap whilst he spanked her, maybe even with her own hairbrush. The very thought made her warm and damp with embarrassed anticipation.
“What shall I do with you, then, cousin mine? Shall I tickle you? That would be a fine torture. Yes, I shall tie you to your chair and tickle you. What fun!”
He directed his naked cousin over to the chair where she usually sat whilst admiring herself in front of the mirror, and pushed her down on it. Grabbing a handful of ribbons from the dressing table, he tied her arms behind her back, Then forcing her legs apart, he tied each one to a chair leg, exposing, as Alice well knew, her tender little cunny to his lecherous gaze. He knelt between her thighs to inspect her private little slit more intimately. She gasped as he ran a questing finger along its length and probed between her coral lips. This was the ultimate humiliation, she thought despairingly – a boy, not even a man yet, was doing these things to her and she was powerless to prevent it.
William reached out and selected one of the little brushes Alice used to enhance her beauty. She squirmed as he used it to tickle first one nipple, then the other.
“Do you like that, darling cousin?” he teased, and then ran the brush lingeringly along the underside of each breast.
“Please, William, please stop,” she begged as he ran the brush gently across her belly in long, languorous strokes. Alice struggled against her bonds, desperate to escape the brush’s teasing caresses. She squealed and squirmed as her cousin tickled her nipples again, before running the brush slowly down her belly towards her cunny, stopping a mere inch away from her holy of holies. He paused there, and worked his way back up her trembling body, working the brush in delicate strokes back and forth. He circled each of her delicious little breasts again with teasing strokes of the brush, before focussing his attentions once more on her nipples. His cousin seemed particularly sensitive there, he considered.
Abruptly, he abandoned her upper torso and, picking another, finer, brush from the selection on the dressing table, proceeded to torment Alice’s feet. He teased the enticing crevices between each one of her toes whilst she squealed and did her utmost to avoid the brush’s caresses. William directed the brush in sweeping little circles, teasing the tender sensitive soles of her feet. Kneeling between her thighs and looking up at her to enjoy his cousin’s response to the torture, he could both watch her delightful grimaces and the even more delightful sight of her cunny, its lips slightly parted to reveal the glistening pink interior. Slowly, he started to work his way up the inside of her left leg, wafting the little brush teasingly back and forth. Alice gave another little squeal as he arrived at the crease behind her knee and then continued to brush upwards along her inner thigh, getting closer, ever closer to her cunny and its moist little slit.
Again, he paused a mere inch or so from Alice’s quim and started to work his way slowly up her other leg. His cousin was breathing heavily and raggedly by the time the brush had worked its way to her right inner thigh and continued its teasing way upwards.
“Oh William, please, please,” she gasped suddenly. “Please don’t stop there. Tickle my cunny, I beg you. Please, please, tickle my cunny!”
She gasped again as her cousin obligingly ran the little brush along the length of her slit. Her hips bucked and she slumped back in her chair.
Master William slowly stood up and observed his cousin’s supine form.
“I believe I have punished you enough, for now,” he smirked as he untied the ribbons that bound her.
“Good night, dearest Alice. Sweet dreams,” he whispered softly as he closed her boudoir’s door behind her. He was looking forwards already to seeing the look on his cousin’s face the following morning, as he replayed for her the entire animated scene, captured forever on the marvellous recording camera obscura he had spent the previous weeks and days perfecting. Her torment was far from over.
