"Not only do I not love you," I cried, "but I hate you! I despise you! I hold you in contempt as a ~iteous weakling! I always have!"

He smiled.

"I am tired of trying to fool you," I said. "Now, free me!"

"Why should I free you?" he asked.

"Because I am a free woman!" I said.

"That is ~not true," he said. "I saw you' jerk in the' hands of A? the "soldier." "I could not help myself," I said.

"Only a natural slave could not have helped herself," he said.

"I do not want to belong to, you," I said.

"I have an alternative in mind," he said. "I think I shall A? give you to the department of the mines. There, naked and yoked, you shall carry water." "No!" I cried.

"Do you beg to be kept in my collar?" he asked. "Yes, Master," I whispered. "Then we shall let it stand at that, shan't we?" he asked. "Yes, Master," I said. I had not counted on the possibility of being sent to the mines.

I knelt back in the ropes. I looked at Dri~su's Rencius. He was quite capable, I realized, suddenly, of sending me to the mines. I did not want that to happen. Too, "looking at him then, I saw him suddenly not only as a man I loved but, also, independently, as a strong and powerful master. I found, then, that I had squirmed in the ropes, inadvertently, reflexively, my thighs moving. I hoped that he had not noticed.

"What is wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing!" I said. I felt the heat of the slave in me. I hoped he could not detect the signs in my body~ I hoped he could not smell me.

He was silent.

"May I speak?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"I gather," I said, "that, you intend to keep me."

"At least for a time," he said.

"I presume," I said, "that at least one of the purposes for Which you purchased me was to make use of me."

"Perhaps," he said.

"I am ready," I said. "Begin my slavery."

He regarded me, not speaking.

"You see me in a collar," I said, angrily. "You know what a collar does to a woman!"

He smiled.

"I have been owned," I said. "I have had masters. They have made me this way!" "So men do have their vengeance," he said. "The scheming beauty is needful." "Yes!" I said. "Speak clearly," he said. "I am needful," I said. "You are more than needful," he said.

"You may or may not believe I love you," I said, "but about my arousal, my need, there is no disputing."

"That is true," he said. "You are obviously, now, a needful slave." "Please," I begged.

He left the chair and, crouching beside me, not hurrying, freed me of the ropes. "Touch neither me nor yourself," he said.

"Yes, Master," I moaned. My body was flaming with He regarded me for a few moments. I moaned.

Then, for a brief moment, he took me in his arms. His hand was upon me, intimately. "I love you! I love you! I love youl" I cried, jerking in his hands, pressing against him, trying ~o cover him with kisses.

"Stop," he said. "To your belly."

Then I was on my belly, on the tiles, my hands at the sides of my head, prone, before his curule chair. He resumed his seat.

I lifted my head and upper body, wildly, agonized, to regard him.

"You are a hot slave," he said.

I regarded him wildly, pathetically, unbelievingly, speechlessly.

"Do you beg a man's touch?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, "yes!"

"Then beg," he said.

"I beg your touch," I wept. "I beg your touch! Please touch me, Master! I beg it!"

"Truly?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. "I beg your touch, truly, Master! I beg it, truly! Please, touch me, Master! Please! Please!"

"No," he said.

I collapsed then to the tiles, sobbing, helpless, quivering with need.

"And thus," said he, "may a hated slave be denied."

I then became aware that he had left his chair, that he was standing near me. to do go, do little to assuage the almost intolerable "passions he had aroused in me. I looked at him, piteously. He laughed, and left. Then I was kneeling there, bewildered, alone, chained. I was a slave I must await his return. He did not, of course, tell me where he was going or when he would be back.

"You understand, do you not," he asked, "that this is a symbolic re-enactment and that it in no way compromises your slavery?"

"Yes, Master," I said.

"For example," he said, "for your treatment of me in CorCyrus, and for various insolences, and lapses, you must still answer to me, and to my whip."

"Yes, Master," I said.

"You are now dressed, are you not," he asked, "fully in the garments of the Tatrix, even to the nature, the subtlety and delicacy of the undergarments?" "Yes," I said.

"And beneath those," he said, "in the eccentric undergarments of Earth, in garments similar to those which you, a barbarian, doubtless once wore there?" A? "Yes," I said. These undergarments had once' belonged to Sheila. They had been, brought to Argentum by Menicius, for the inquiry. I supposed that now, technically, they might be tho property of the state of Argentum, I, at any rate, did not own them. I could own nothing.

Rather it was I who was owned. Fortunately, Sheila and I were almost identically figured.

"Turn, Tatrix," said Drusus Rencius.

I turned, obediently, before him. He sat in the eurule chair, across, the room. I had been given the slave name, "Tatrix." I had been given no choice in the matter, and I must respond to it, perfectly.

"Good," he said. "Now walk back and forth, slowly."

I did so.

Many of the garments I wore had been those which I myself had worn, when I had been playing the role of the Tatrix. This pleased Drusus Rencius. He remembered me in them.

"Good," he said. "You may now stop."

I stood then again before him, facing him.

"Turn again," he said.

I did so.

"Good," he said.'

I wore no bond. He had even removed from me his collar. It hung now on the arm of the curule chair. There was no doubt, however, that I was a slave, or whose slave. I was. I was branded, and I was paid for.

"You will now strip yourself naked, slowly," he said. "I in-tend to enjoy this." I reached to the pins, at the side of the veil. One by one, I removed them. I then put the veil with its pins, to one side. I then, with both hands, putting back my head, brushed back the hood of the "robes. I shook my head and arranged my hair. I then faced Drusus Rencius, face-stripped.

"Continue," he said.'

One by one I removed' the garments of the Tatrix. Then I stood before him clad only in undergarments of Earth, in a brassiere and panties.

Drusus Rencius nodded.

I removed the brassiere, and straightened my body.

"Excellent," he said.

I faced him.

"Now remove the last veil," he said.

I bent down and, in a moment, stepped from the panties. I then, again, straightened myself before him. I hoped he liked what he saw. He owned it. "Superb," he said. "Superbi"

I smiled.

His face grew hard. "Kneel," he said.

Swiftly I knelt, in the position of the pleasure slave.

I swallowed, hard. I saw that he had no intention of permitting my beauty, if beauty it was, which had at one time apparently been so tormenting to him, when it had been inaccessible, diminish in any way the perfections of his mastery of me.

He went to a chest at the side of the room, and drew forth a small, gray garment, which he threw to me. I caught it against my body. I shook it out, happily. "You kept it, Master!"

I laughed, delighted. It was the brief slave tunic, sleeveless and gray, which I had worn in the house of Kliomenes, so long ago, in Corcyrus.

"Yes," he said, "for when you were my true slave."

"I love it!" I said. To some, I suppose, it would have seemed a scandalous rag, unseemly and degrading, but I found it very beautiful, not only because of the lovely and sensitive way in which it enhanced and displayed the beauty of the female figure but because of memories with which it was associated, memories which, for me, at least, were very precious.