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Authors: Pauline Réage
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the temporary membership cards, the applicant had to show his passport or some other identification (it being made clear to him that no record was kept at Roissy of any such papers used by the customer); in short, Roissy was officially ignored and unofficially tolerated. One of the reasons for this, in addition to the above-named precautions that the establishment itself took, was doubtless that there had never been any complaints from Roissy about venereal disease, nor had there been any scandal relative to pregnancies or abortions. O had always wondered how it was possible for girls who sometimes slept with as many as ten men a day-men who were extremely demanding and would put up with no show of reluctance or embarrassment-how it was possible for them to avoid getting pregnant. They couldn’t all be lucky, as was O; she had a physical anomaly that practically eliminated any possibility of pregnancy.
“Luck?” said Anne-Marie. “Chance? There are ways of replacing these, O,” was the reply to O’s query on the matter.
=46rom her answer, O came to the conclusion that Anne-Marie, who was a doctor, had secretly operated on the girls at Roissy. You never saw on any of their faces that anxious or worried look that, with other women, revealed that she was late with her period.
“Oh, it’s nothing at all, really,” Noelle said to her one day, “and afterward you never think or worry about it again. But I can’t explain exactly what it is. They put me to sleep.”
But O conjectured that it was less the fact of being under anesthesia that kept her from telling more than that she had been strictly forbidden to talk about the operation.
As far as venereal disease was concerned, the matter was not so simple: the precautions they used included pills you let dissolve internally, prophylactics, and douches. The worst source of contagion was the mouth. The liquid lipstick that had been applied to her upon her arrival helped to prevent chafing and cracking, and thus to reduce the danger. And, too, Anne-Marie examined the girls daily. And if contagion did occur, they treated or, if it became necessary, isolated the girl-there were rooms directly above Anne-Marie’s quarters-until she was cured.
These restrictions, and this care, did not apply to girls who were brought to Roissy by their lovers: they were strictly on their own, and what is more they never entered the main enclosure. As for the others, who or what determined how each girl was to be utilized within the confines of the restricted area and how she was to be used outside, O was never really able to figure out. There was, however, a clearly established routine for the girls when they were in uniform: so many days serving in the restaurant for lunch, so many days on duty there for dinner; similarly, when they were in their formal gowns, so many afternoons and so many evenings per week on duty in the bar. Nonetheless, since both the restaurant and the bar were open to visitors and Club members alike, there was nothing to prevent the latter from choosing a girl and taking her back behind the gates of the enclosure. As for the rest of their routine, it seemed to be a matter of ca price: for example, when the valet had come to ask for two girls for the bar, the fact that Noelle and O had been chosen rather than Monique or Madeleine.
When O entered the bar for the first time, following close on the heels of Noelle, she was struck by its resemblance to the library they had just left: it was the same size room with the same kind of woodwork and the same easy chairs. The pretty little redhead who was shaved and bore the same kind of irons as O, and whom O had once whipped at Anne-Marie’s, an experience from which she had derived, after her initial hesitations, a pleasure that had surprised her, was seated on a bar stool. She was dressed in gray satin and was laughing and clearly enjoying herself with two men. As soon as she saw O she jumped off her stool, came over and
“Luck?” said Anne-Marie. “Chance? There are ways of replacing these, O,” was the reply to O’s query on the matter.
=46rom her answer, O came to the conclusion that Anne-Marie, who was a doctor, had secretly operated on the girls at Roissy. You never saw on any of their faces that anxious or worried look that, with other women, revealed that she was late with her period.
“Oh, it’s nothing at all, really,” Noelle said to her one day, “and afterward you never think or worry about it again. But I can’t explain exactly what it is. They put me to sleep.”
But O conjectured that it was less the fact of being under anesthesia that kept her from telling more than that she had been strictly forbidden to talk about the operation.
As far as venereal disease was concerned, the matter was not so simple: the precautions they used included pills you let dissolve internally, prophylactics, and douches. The worst source of contagion was the mouth. The liquid lipstick that had been applied to her upon her arrival helped to prevent chafing and cracking, and thus to reduce the danger. And, too, Anne-Marie examined the girls daily. And if contagion did occur, they treated or, if it became necessary, isolated the girl-there were rooms directly above Anne-Marie’s quarters-until she was cured.
These restrictions, and this care, did not apply to girls who were brought to Roissy by their lovers: they were strictly on their own, and what is more they never entered the main enclosure. As for the others, who or what determined how each girl was to be utilized within the confines of the restricted area and how she was to be used outside, O was never really able to figure out. There was, however, a clearly established routine for the girls when they were in uniform: so many days serving in the restaurant for lunch, so many days on duty there for dinner; similarly, when they were in their formal gowns, so many afternoons and so many evenings per week on duty in the bar. Nonetheless, since both the restaurant and the bar were open to visitors and Club members alike, there was nothing to prevent the latter from choosing a girl and taking her back behind the gates of the enclosure. As for the rest of their routine, it seemed to be a matter of ca price: for example, when the valet had come to ask for two girls for the bar, the fact that Noelle and O had been chosen rather than Monique or Madeleine.
When O entered the bar for the first time, following close on the heels of Noelle, she was struck by its resemblance to the library they had just left: it was the same size room with the same kind of woodwork and the same easy chairs. The pretty little redhead who was shaved and bore the same kind of irons as O, and whom O had once whipped at Anne-Marie’s, an experience from which she had derived, after her initial hesitations, a pleasure that had surprised her, was seated on a bar stool. She was dressed in gray satin and was laughing and clearly enjoying herself with two men. As soon as she saw O she jumped off her stool, came over and
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