"You informed the slave," I said to Lavinia, "that the plan had been advanced, and that he was now to be here at half past the fifth Ahn?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"He thinks that is the new time of the assignation?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"And he has not had time to convey this information to his master, as far as you know."

"I should not think so, Master," she said.

"He will then presumably regard it as his work to keep the free woman, whoever she turns out to be, here until Appanius and the magistrates arrive."

"I would think so, Master," she said.

"Which arrival, as he understands it, will be in the neighborhood of a half past the sixth Ahn?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Good," I said. The original time of the assignation, conveyed to the slave, which he, in turn, would have conveyed to his master, was the seventh Ahn. Accordingly the master, and presumably two magistrates, who would act as official witnesses and be officers versed in certain matters, would wish to arrive early, presumably about half past the sixth Ahn, or, at any rate, at a decent interval before the seventh Ahn. The free woman might very well, of course, not appear precisely at the seventh Ahn. She might prefer to let her putative lover wait, perhaps torturing himself with anxieties and doubts as to her intent to appear at all. This is very different from a slave, of course. The slave must be instantly ready to serve the master, and at so little as a whistle, a gesture or a snapping of the fingers.

"But," I said, "I have sent a message to Appanius myself, an anonymous message, on which I think he will act. He should, then, if all goes according to my plans, not arrive at half past the sixth Ahn, as the slave expects, but shortly after the slave himself arrives, which should be shortly."

"I think," said Marcus, "we should consider withdrawing."

"True," I said.

Marcus put away his sharpening stone.

He wiped the blade on the hem of his tunic.

"Do you expect to use that?" I asked.

He sheathed the blade. "I do not know," he said.

"The slave is likely to enter through the main door?" I asked Lavinia.

"I do not know," she said.

"He was here when you arrived?"

"Yes," she smiled. "I made him wait."

"But you entered through that door?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "That is the door by means of which I was entered into this room. Appanius, and the magistrates, and others, apparently had entered through the back, or some side entrance."

"There is such an entrance," I said. "It lets out into an alley, a little further down the street. One then comes back to the street between buildings."

"That is, I believe," she said, "the way I left the premises. To be sure, once out in the street I was almost instantly disoriented."

I nodded.

"I did not even know where I was," she said, "until I was unhooded, and found myself chained by the neck in a magistrate's cell."

"Good luck," I said to the girl.

Marcus preceded me. We would leave through the back. "Remember the sleen," I said.

"Yes, Master!" she said.

How marvelous she looked, slave, the collar on her neck!

In a moment or two Marcus and I were on the street, outside the room.

"There!" said Marcus.

"The hooded fellow, in the robe?" I said.

"That is our friend, I am sure!" said Marcus.

"It is his size, at any rate," I said. The golden sandals, too, suggested it was he for whom we were first waiting.

"He is going between the buildings," said Marcus. "He will use the side entrance."

"I trust that Lavinia will not be too disappointed," I said.

"Why should that be?" asked Marcus.

"Nothing," I said.

"He will think he has at least an Ahn alone with her," said Marcus.

"Even if he is not in the least interested in her," I said, "Lavinia knows what to do."

"Why should he not be interested in her?" asked Marcus. "She is a well-curved slave."

"It is just an apprehension," I said.

"You certainly went into it in great enough detail," said Marcus.

"It is important to be thorough," I said.

"I never saw a woman get undressed so fast," he said.

"It may have to be done between the sound of a footstep and the bursting open of a door," I said.

"I myself prefer a more graceful, sensuous disrobing on the part of a female slave," he said.

"I would generally agree," I said, "if there is time." It is a delight, of course, to have a slave disrobe before one, gracefully, sensuously, displaying herself, revealing her master's property to him. Women are excellent at this sort of thing. They seem to have an instinct, or a natural sense, for it. And I think that they are not always averse to noting the effects of their unveiling upon the master, to note how they, in this revelation of their beauty and loveliness, can drive him wild with desire. In such things I think a slave has great power. Yet, in the end, it is still she who is owned. In slave pens, incidentally, girls are trained to disrobe, and, indeed, robe gracefully. Slave girls are not permitted to shortchange their beauty. They must fulfill its promise. There is something to be said in favor of the swift disrobing in certain contexts, of course, aside from its more unusual employments, as in plans such as mine. For example, a master, whip in hand, may order a slave, usually a new slave, to disrobe instantly, and then robe, and then disrobe, and so on. This may be done fifteen or twenty times in a row. This is useful in teaching her that she in now a slave. It also, of course, gets her used to disrobing before her master. Another use is when the slave desires to surprise her master with her beauty, perhaps before begging use. She might then utilize a particular moment to disrobe, perhaps one in which he has merely turned away. When he turns back, she is naked. She then kneels before him. "Ah!" said Marcus. "What a shame!"

"What is a shame?" I asked.

"The poor fellow will have almost no time with her," he said.

"Yes," I said. "Here, if I am not mistaken, come Appanius, and he has men with him."

"You will approach him?" asked Marcus.

"Certainly," I said.

"Hold!" I said, angrily, stepping forth. "Are you Appanius, he of well-known house of Appanius?"

"Who are you?" said he, angrily.

"By my armband, you see I have authority to stop you," I said, not pleasantly. Both Marcus and I, of course, as we usually did, wore our armbands, signifying our status as auxiliary guardsmen. A major advantage of this, of course, is that it entitled us to go abroad openly armed.

Appanius lifted his staff, angrily.

I took no note of the raised staff. I could, of course, at that point, have killed him. They, too, carried staffs. Other than this, however, in accord with the weapons laws, they were not armed. Two also carried chains.

"You have been questioned," I reminded Appanius.

He lowered his staff, angrily. "Yes," he said, "I am Appanius, of that house, best known for his agricultural enterprises."

"Do you own a disobedient, wayward slave?" I asked.

"I do not understand," he said.

"I have a little slut named Lavinia," I said.

"Lavinia!" he cried, in fury.

"Recently purchased," I said.

"The lewd little baggage!" he said.

"A fellow, whom I gather from others is your slave," I said, "had apparently seduced her."

"Impossible!" he said.

"You know this Lavinia?" I asked.

"I am sure it is the one!" he said. "I should have sold her out of the city as a pot girl months ago!"

"They have apparently been seeing one another," I said. That was true enough, of course, as Lavinia, in the garment resembling that of a state slave, and in what seemed to be a state collar, had been in contact several times with the slave, carrying verbal messages, and arranging the details of the putative assignation of this morning. Too, of course, she had been similarly in contact with the Ubara, only in that role, of course, in a collar purporting to be that of the house of Appanius.