"Would you not like to be carried off?" I asked.
"No!" she said.
"But surely you are not so enamored of the labors of the field slave," I said. "No," she said.
"And you have already begun to sense in yourself the beginnings of slave fires" I said.
She looked at me, and then put her head down, quickly. She clenched her small fists.
"Speak," I said. "Have they not already begun to burn in your belly?"
She looked up, agonized, her small fists clenched.
"Remember," I said, "you have already incurred discipline."
"Yes, Master!" she sobbed.
"Good," I said.
She put down her head, sobbing. How helpless one must feel at times, I thought, as a female slave. But such admissions are good for the development of their character, and their discipline. Too, they are very helpful and beneficial for the slave. They help them to understand who and what they are, and who is master.
"I would think you would be an excellent house slave," I said, "silked, pattering about, perhaps belled, serving, heated and excited by the nearness of your master."
She looked up.
"Perhaps you might even be chained to his slave ring at night, at the very foot of his couch."
"It is such things I want!" she said.
"It is easy to imagine you kneeling before him, begging for his touch."
"Yes, Master!" she said.
"And will he consent to content you?" I asked.
"It is my hope that he would take pity on one who is only his slave."
"Yes," I said. "I think you would be hot, devoted and dutiful."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"I think you would make an excellent house slave," I said, "indeed, an excellent pleasure slave."
"Oh, yes, Master!" she said.
"And perhaps in time," I said, "even a love slave."
"It is thusly that I want to live!" she said.
"Then surely you wish to be carried off," I said.
"No," she said. "No!"
"Why not?" I asked.
She sobbed.
"Ah," I said. "It seems you do not wish to leave the vicinity of the house of Appanius."
"No, Master," she said. "I do not wish to leave the vicinity of the house of Appanius."
"Apparently you are very devoted to your master," I said.
"I do not even know him," she said, "except as I, and others, are utilized for such purposes as serving his table. Even when he passes us in a hall we kneel in obeisance, our heads to the floor."
"Still," I said, "it seems you must be very devoted to him."
She put her head down.
"But in any event," I said, "your wishes are unimportant. You are a female slave. It will be done with you as men, and masters, please."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"I wish certain details as to the techniques utilized by Appanius and Milo in the capture of free women, thence to be enslaved."
"Master?" she asked.
"Surely from the conversation which you overheard, and from your own experience, you have some ideas of what these must be."
"Surely master can have no interest in such things," she said.
"You have now twice incurred discipline," I informed her.
"Forgive me, Master!" she said.
"How will you speak?" I asked.
"Fully, and perfectly, to the best of my knowledge!"
"As befits what you are?"
"Yes, Master!" she said.
"Which is?" I asked.
"A slave girl, Master," she said, "only that!"
"Who initiates these relationships?" I asked.
"In one of two ways, I think, are they initiated," she said. "In the first, the free woman puts herself in Milo's way, she compliments him, she calls herself to his attention, perhaps she lowers her veil a little, perhaps she lowers her veil a little, perhaps her tones to him are soft, and special, making clear to him that there is an eager lover awaiting him beneath her veils and robes, perhaps she even lets him lift and kiss the coverlets of her palanquin, near her feet, such things. These advances, so calculatedly ambiguous, and yet so obvious and meaningful, are reported to Appanius. He then makes a judgment as to whether they are to be encouraged or not, and then, later, perhaps after she has lowered her veil for Milo, and let him gaze upon the revelation of her beauty, and he has seen her move in the palanquin, apparently inadvertently, but in such a way that he can conjecture something of the fairness of her limbs beneath her robes, and has perhaps even seen her ankles, a second judgment, this again from the reports of Milo, is made by Appanius. If this judgment is favorable and it is decided that the female, after having been perhaps subjected to a rigorous regimen of dieting, exercise, training and discipline, might not preposterously be put upon a slave block, the arrangements for her capture are completed. In the second way the matter is initiated by Appanius himself, he himself selecting a candidate for approach, scrutiny and cultivation."
"On what grounds initially?" I asked.
"Usually from rumors of a certain free woman's beauty," she said.
"I see," I said.
"Too," she said, "it is my understanding that information is sometimes furnished for a fee, by some of the female proprietors of women's baths in Ar. Too, in some cases, Appanius is permitted to observe the women from a secret coign of vantage."
"In what way did you come to attention of Appanius?" I asked.
"In the first way, doubtless," she smiled, "as I did not frequent the public baths and I doubt very much that rumors of my beauty were abroad in the streets."
"They might have been," I said.
"Master is kind," she said.
"Continue," I said.
"Although master might regard me as having been a spoiled, pampered free woman, and although that was undoubtedly true," she said, "I was nonetheless too shy in the beginning even to approach one such as Milo. Certainly there must be free women richer and more beautiful than I in Ar. Accordingly, in the beginning, I only worshipped him from afar. I attended his performances. I dreamed of him. But I did not dare call myself to his attention."
"In the beginning," I said, "your responses to Milo were more humble and slavelike?"
"Yes, Master," she said. "I even dreamed of crawling to him, putting my head down and kissing his feet."
"Continue," I said.
"But soon, of course, the free woman in me became outraged at such things! They were too feminine! I was not a slave!"
"And you became bolder?"
She laughed. "Well," she said, "perhaps not so much bolder. But I would station myself and my attendants where he might pass, if only to catch a glimpse of him between the curtains of my palanquin."
"In effect," I said, "your responses were still shy, and slavelike."
"Yes," she said, angrily.
"You felt you belonged at the feet of such a man?"
"Perhaps," she said.