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I met Harwell Tusker for an early morning coffee with the aim of providing him with a report on the progress of his two nieces. When he entered the coffee shop that I had suggested for our meeting, I at once saw that he was in a state of some disarray. He was unshaven. His furrowed brow spoke of a disturbing head ache and dark bags below bloodshot eyes further suggested a night that had not provided him with the requisite eight hours of sleep. “You look awful,” I said.
“How extraordinary,” Harwell replied testily. “That is exactly how I feel.”
A waitress approached us. Harwell growled a request for a cup of coffee and she scuttled off to fulfil his order.
“You might,” Harwell started, “in your programme of training do something to ensure that a woman allows her man a decent night’s sleep. Amelia was tossing and turning all night. The result of some affliction as a result of her gender and its relationship with the lunar cycle no doubt. I couldn’t get a moments peace.”
He had a point and I told him so. In some respects I count myself fortunate not to have to share my bed with a wife. We went on with our discussion on Amanda and Estelle but at the conclusion I took myself for a short walk to consider Harwell’s plight and what lessons might be learned from it. I was determined to include measures to address his concerns for my future clients.
The principles of learning that I try to exploit in my methods suggest that skills only become second nature when the student moves from a state of unconscious incompetence, through conscious incompetence, and conscious competence until eventually they achieve a state of unconscious competence, the ability to perform the task well without thinking. The challenge was how this sequence of learning could be induced during the hours of sleep.
A conversation with the community of artisans that had created the Orrery and the shock machine provided me with both a method and the means of implementing it. And so it was that, only three days later, a new double bed was installed in one of the attic rooms that were once used for the domestic servants of the house.
Amanda and Estelle viewed the new equipment with well-founded suspicion. They soon appeared to have formed the view that the various straps and fastenings were unlikely to contribute to their comfort. “This is,” I said by way of introduction, “an important part of your training. You are learning to please your husbands when you are awake; you must learn to please them – or at least not disturb them – while you are asleep. This bed will help you learn to be still while you sleep.”
Amanda and Estelle looked at me as though I had taken leave of my senses, something I had found they were often inclined to imagine until being brought to a full understanding of what was being presented to them.
“Please,” I said, “make your ablutions and then take your places. I wish to start this part of your learning this very night.”
The two girls each took their turn using the toilet facilities and the washstand that had been made available in the room. I knew how much they hated me standing by while they did this but it was part of their education to become adjusted to being constantly appraised and at no time allowed privacy. In very little time they completed their preparations and presented themselves beside the bed, in the approved position with their hands behind their backs and their heads bowed.
“Very well, ladies,” I said. “It’s bed time.”
I took Amanda first and had her lay down on her back with her arms by her side. Estelle watched as I first of all fastened straps around her wrists and the upper part of her arms and followed this with the application of further straps around her ankles and her thighs.
I did the same for Estelle, noting that, while I did so, Amanda was testing the extent to which the straps restrained her and was pleased to discover that while the straps did appear to be attached to cables that ran through the mattress and underneath the bed, she was still able to move without much restriction. For my part, I was concerned lest the cables might present the risk of strangulation, becoming entangled about their necks in some way. To avoid this risk, I provided each of the girls with a broad and thick leather collar buckled around their necks. Although this would prove somewhat uncomfortable for them, since the collars were so wide and heavy as to prevent almost any movement of their heads, at least it prevented any possible tragedy of the kind I feared.
With both girls settled into the bed, I bade them good night and left them to their rest. From my own room, an ingenious optical device, installed at the same time as the bed, allowed me to watch over my charges in their new predicament. The anglescope, as its installer had called it, used a series of lenses and reflective plates to convey a view of the girls’ room to my own and I was able to watch as, at the start of the night, their tossing and turning pulled on the cables attached to their wrist and ankle bands. I went to my own bed after a little while, quite convinced that the new bed was functioning correctly.
The following morning when I returned to the girls’ accommodation, it was clear that the girls had not succeeded in sleeping well at all.
Released from the straps and allowed to get up, the two looked dishevelled and distraught at the prospect of a day’s training without the benefit of the rest that the night would normally have brought. The ingenious features of the bed had made sure that each twist or turn in the night before had brought discomfort on the individual responsible for it.
The effect appeared to be as predicted. Beneath the bed, the cables connected to the leather wrist and ankle cuffs were wound on to clockwork-powered drums. As the night progressed, each girl’s natural movements would, up to a limit, be allowed by the slack in the cables. If, however, an excessive tensioning of the cable is detected by the mechanism, a catch is released causing the clockwork drum to tension the cable, returning the girl to her original position. As long as Estelle or Amanda remained still there was no mechanical activity. If, though, there was any significant movement of the limbs or any attempt to roll over, even in their sleep, it would be immediately detected by the machine and the girl brought back to her original position. I suppose that the machine could have been designed in such a way as to achieve this repositioning slowly. However, it was not. The re-tensioning of the cable was sudden, violent and, inevitably, had the effect of awakening the sleeping victim. From the appearance of the girls next morning, it was clear that the system had been triggered many times during the previous night. I checked the small pointer on the brass dial of each tensioning motor that showed how often it had been triggered. Estelle had been disturbed no less than eight times, Amanda twelve. It was obvious too, that as each had been awakened by the system, the sudden winding of cables occasioned by the movements of one sister would have woken, or at least disturbed, the other. The girls, yawning and red-eyed, were sent off to start their domestic tasks for the day.
I fear that as a result of their tiredness their attention to detail in their duties was somewhat less than usual. It grieved me, but I had little alternative but to punish them prior to their settling down for the next night. The combination of their exhaustion and the continued disturbances of the preceding night helped them to be a little less restive. Estelle managed to reduce the number of times her limbs were snapped back into place to five while Amanda was only disturbed seven times. They continued in this way for some days, their day time work still less than perfect but their night-time fidgeting progressively reduced. By the end of a week, they were able to regain sufficient rest so that failings in their domestic duties were no greater than before. Of course, by this time they had received a substantial number of additional beatings but even this had its benefits. The repetitive surge of endorphins as a result of their punishments seemed to be accelerating their general behavioural adjustment. I was grateful to Harwell for having presented a problem which, in its solution, had in fact improved my approach. The girls would have a much greater control over their sleeping behaviour to the benefit of their future husbands. The bed was to remain a feature of my training regimen from then on.
© Freddie Clegg 2012
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