"Yes, Master," she said, wincing.
"But if your behavior should suggest that this is not the case it might be offensive to Philebus, and, indeed, to the customers. In such a case, you should rejoice you received such a light beating. You understand these things?"
"Yes, Master," she said.
"You are not stupid, are you?" I asked. "No, Master," she said.
"Then why did you behave as you did?" I asked. I knew.
"Because of him!" she said. "Because of him!"
"Speak," I said, "but do so, softly."
"It is difficult to speak softly of such things!" she said, fire in her eyes.
"Beware," I said. "You are in a collar." She turned white.
"Now speak," I said.
"Let me speak with tenseness," she said. "But softly," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
She was trying to gain control over herself. "Speak, slave," I said.
"You saw that it was he, he, here, in the paga enclosure, he who so scorned and abused me at the Crooked Tarn!"
"Of course," I said.
"Surely you recall he would not even permit me to serve him, though I was naked and in chains, at the Crooked Tarn!"
"You were then a free woman," I reminded her.
"He preferred a slave to me, to me!" she said.
"But you yourself are now a slave," I said.
"You permitted me to serve you!" she said.
"Yes," I admitted. "But then I am a tolerant, broad-minded fellow," I pointed out. I smiled inwardly. I had enjoyed having the proud wench, so distraught and resentful in her chains, serve me. It is pleasant to take a proud free woman and teach her her womanhood.
"He shook me, and cruelly," she exclaimed, softly, tensely. "He flung me from him to the floor in disgust. Though I was free he held me in contempt!"
"He wanted a woman," I said.
"I was a woman!"
"But at that time not as a slave is a woman," I said.
She shuddered deliciously in her collar, sensing my meaning. But in a moment she had again addressed herself to her grievances.
"He used a slave in preference to me!" she said.
"And you watched in awe, as I recall," I said.
"Master," she said, reproachfully.
"And enviously."
"Master!" she protested.
"Perhaps you wished that it was you who was serving him rather than the slave in his power."
"Please, Master!" she protested.
"Continue," I said.
"And later, when you were kind enough to have me brought to your space at the inn, he was there, too!"
"Kind enough'?" I said.
"Forgive me, Master," she said.
"I wanted a female to relieve my tensions, and as you were then free, a debtor slut, you came cheap."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Too, you were attractive," I said.
"Even as a free woman?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"And now," she asked, "as a slave?"
"Thousands of times more attractive," I said. "Good," she said, and her body moved excitingly, I think inadvertently.
"So do not speak of kindness," I said.
"Forgive me, Master," she said.
"Proceed," I said.
"And he was there, the rude brute, the monster!"
''I recall, ' I said.
"He spoke of me as "fat," "she said, "as "stupid," as a she-tarsk, as not being worth sleen feed!"
"I recall," I said.
"And he wanted me taken from his sight!"
"And he made you address him as "Master," " I said.
"Yes!" she said.
"Was he the first man you ever addressed as "Master"?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"I thought so," I said.
"But I was free, free!" she pointed out.
"And you are now a slave," I said.
"Yes," she said. She would now call all free men "Master," and, of course, all free women "Mistress."
"But I was then free!" she said.
"But yet you called him "Master," " I reminded her.
"Yes," she said.
"And he was the first to whom you, even though at that time free, addressed that title of respect and sovereignty."
"Yes," she said. "The brute, the monster!"
I looked at her in the light of the tiny lamp. She was very beautiful.
"Oh," she said, bitterly, "you may well wager that I never forgot the monster!"
"I am sure you did not," I said.
"Oh," she said, "I hate him! I hate him!"
"I see," I said.
"And then he was here, and I within his reach, though now as a slave!"
"I can well imagine your feelings," I said.
"Why are you smiling?" she asked.
"It is nothing," I said.
"I determined that I would present myself before him!" she said.
"Under the circumstances, as it turned out, you had no choice," I said.
She looked startled. "I suppose that is true," she said.
"It is," I assured her.
"I determined that I would show him a female, a female, indeed!"
"And you did," I said.
"Did you see?" she asked. "He did not even recognize me!"
"True," I said.
"Did you see his eyes, his expressions!" she laughed, softly.
"Certainly," I said, "and heard as well his moans of desire, his cries of anguish."
"Did I not move him, did I not excite him as a woman?"
"You certainly did," I said.
"I paraded," she laughed. "I moved. I parted my silk. I writhed. I danced!"
"And men came even to the railings to watch," I said.
"And did I not have my vengeance?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"He desired me mightily," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"And did he not exclaim that I was the most beautiful slave he had ever seen!" she said.
"That he did," I said.
"So enthralled I had him in the toils of desire that he was in pain!" she said.
"Indeed," I said.
"He did not ask for me to be taken from his sight this night!" she said.
"No, indeed," I said.
"And thus I proved my womanhood to him, and that he had been wrong in scorning me, in holding me in contempt, in casting me from him!"
"It was Temione, the free woman," I reminded her, "whom he had rejected, not Temione, the slave."
"But we are the same!" she said. "Do you really think so?" I asked. "Surely, in some way," she said.
"Perhaps, in some way," I granted her.
"He wanted me!" she said, "but he could not have me! I am too expensive, too desirable, for a mere courier!"
"Beware of playing a dangerous game," I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You could come easily enough into the possession, completely, of the courier," I said.
"I do not understand," she said.
"Whether he could afford you or not," I said, "does not depend on you. It depends on other things, for example, on the market, and how much he has, and is willing to spend. Too, it depends on Philebus, and what he will let you go for. He could sell you for a copper tarsk, you know."