“Thirty-six strokes of the cane across your behind, Noreen. That is your allotted penalty for a week's misconduct. After that, we must add some thing for your disgraceful conduct in the other room.”
Now, under the level fringe of dark hair, her eyes filled with dismay. Yet I had endured enough of her impudence and was resolved.
“You fear you will not be able to bear it, Noreen? Fortunately, the choice is not yours. You will be made to bear it all the same.”

Birch in the Boudoir is a series of letters between two separated lovers written in the early part of the twentieth century. Charles is fortunate enough to inherit a large sum of money, but as a condition of the will he must work six months in gainful employment or lose his inheritance. The employment arranged for him is to act as an assistant at a girls’ reformatory where the inmates are regularly used and abused and are made to endure an extremely strict disciplinary régime. His lover, Elizabeth, is the daughter of a British Ambassador in the Middle East. One of the local pashas allows her to view his harem and witness the way in which the girls are bizarrely punished for any indiscretions.