'What perfume are you wearing?' demanded the Lady Florence.
'Yours, as you know!' said the Lady Melpomene, coldly. 'That from the shop of Turbus Veminius in Venna.' I recalled the perfume which I had fetched for the Mistress, when I had been waylaid by the henchmen of the Lady Melpomene. I supposed it was the same perfume, replaced.
'Not mine,' said the Lady Florence. 'I use it only as a slave perfume. I use it to souse my stable sluts before I throw them chained to the men.' That was not true. The Lady Florence did not permit her stable sluts perfume, even slave perfume. On the other hand the smell of their sweat and fear, and the precipitated odors of their hot love oils, indicative of their helpless arousal, were more than sufficient to excite the brutes who took them in their arms.
'Whose garments do you wear?' asked the Lady Florence.
The Lady Melpomene sprang to her feet. 'I will not remain here to be insulted,' she said, furiously. She drew up her robes, to her ankles, and in fury, with a sob, fled toward the door. But there she was met by two large fellows, who barred her way. 'Durbar! Hesiusl' she said. 'Take me home.' I recognized the pair. They were the fellows who had, long ago, captured me in an alley in Venna and carried me, bound in a slave sack, to the house of the Lady Melpomene, where she had used me for her pleasure. I had been returned similarly helpless to my Mistress, with a note. After that my Mistress had sent me to the stables.
The two men now each held an arm of the Lady Melpomene. 'Take me home!' she cried.
'We are now in the fee of the Lady Florence,' said one of the men, he whom I took it was named Durbar.
They then turned the Lady Melpomene about and, she stumbling, they forced her back to a place between the tables. The three of them then stood on the red tiles. The two men, each one holding an arm, held the Lady Melpomene so that she must face the Lady Florence.
'What is the meaning of this?' cried the Lady Melpomene.
'Whose garments do you wear?' demanded the Lady Florence.
The Lady Melpomene struggled, but helplessly. 'Yours! Yours!' she then cried, held.
'Remove them,' said the Lady Florence, coldly. The two men released the arms of the Lady Melpomene and stood back some feet and to the side.
'Never,' said the Lady Melpomene.
'The slippers first,' said the Lady Florence.
The Lady Melpomene stepped from the slippers. 'She bares her feet before free persons,' said the Lady Florence. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene laughed.
'Now throw back the hood and remove your veil,' said the Lady Florence, harshly.
'Never!' cried the Lady Melpomene. The veil bore the stain from the wine which had been thrown upon it.
'You will do these things or they will be done for you,' said the Lady Florence, indicating Durbar and Hesius.
The Lady Melpomene, angrily, threw back her hood, and then, pin by pin, lowered her veil. Her hair, as I recalled, was long and dark. Her cheekbones were high, her eyes dark. She was a very lovely woman.
'She face strips herself before free persons,' said the Lady Florence.
'Why are you doing this to me?' cried out the Lady Melpomene. There was again laughter from the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene.
'Remove your clothing now, all of it,' said the Lady Florence, coldly.
With a sob the Lady Melpomene suddenly fled from. the hall, to the anteroom beyond it. The Lady Florence indicated to Durbar and Hesius that they were not to pursue her. We heard the Lady Melpomene in the outer room, pounding on a door. It was apparently barred from the other side and whoever guarded it, probably Borto, one of the men of the Lady Florence, had been instructed not to open it in answer to her entreaties.
'Let me out! Let me out!' cried the Lady Melpomene.
'Come back, Lady Melpomene,' called the Lady Florence, 'and hurry, lest we become displeased.'
The Lady Melpomene hurried back to the tables, sobbing, and fell on her knees at the low table of the Lady Florence. She extended her hands to the Lady Florence. She tried to touch the Lady Florence but the Lady Florence drew back. 'What are you doing to me?' begged the Lady Melpomene.
'Go, stand there on the tiles, where you were before,' said the Lady Florence, pointing.
With a sob the Lady Melpomene rose to her feet and went to stand where she had stood before.
'Now remove your clothing, all of it,' said the Lady Florence, 'or it will be done for you.'
Trembling, garment by garment, the Lady Melpomene removed her clothing. Then she stood on the scarlet tiles, naked, near the iron ring.
'That is the sum of your resources,' said the Lady Florence. 'That is what you have, nothing.'
'Please, Florence,' moaned the Lady Melpomene.
'Am I not your single and full creditor?' asked the Lady Florence.
'Yes,' whispered the Lady Melpomene.
Then, grandly, loftily, the Lady Florence lifted up the loan note from the table before her.
'I demand payment,' said the Lady Florence. 'I demand that you now pay me the sum of one thousand, four hundred and twenty taros of gold.'
'I cannot pay you now,' said the Lady Melpomene. 'You know that.'
The Lady Florence turned to look upon Brandon, who was a prefect in Vonda. He jotted down something on a paper before him.
'You cannot do this!' cried out the Lady Melpomene.
'Such notes as that I hold,' said the Lady Florence, 'are due, as you must know, upon the demand of the creditor.'
'Yes, yes!' cried the Lady Melpomene, clenching her small fists. 'But I did not dream you would desire to achieve so hasty a closure on your note.'
'Such is my prerogative,' said the Lady Florence, imperiously.
'You must give me time to recoup my fortunes!' cried the Lady Melpomene.
'I do not choose to do so,' said the Lady Florence.
'Is it your intention to bring about my total ruin?' asked the Lady Melpomene.
'My intentions go far beyond your ruin,' said the Lady Florence.
'I do not understand,' said the Lady Melpomene.
'A demand for payment has been made, Lady Melpomene,' said Brandon, a prefect of Vonda. 'Can you pay?'
'You have lured me here,' cried out the Lady Melpomene to the Lady Florence, 'away from Vonda, beyond the shelter of her walls!'
'The walls of Vonda,' said the prefect sternly, 'would no longer afford you protection, for your debt, in its plenitude, is now owed to one who is a citizen of Vonda.'
The Lady Melpomene shuddered. 'I have been tricked,' she said.
'Can you pay?' pressed the prefect.
'No,' she cried in misery, 'no!'
'Kneel, Lady Melpomene, free woman of Vonda,' said the prefect.
'Please, no!' she wept.
'Would you rather this be done on the platform of public shame in the great square of Vonda, where you might bring shame upon the Home Stone?' inquired the prefect.
'No, no,' sobbed the Lady Melpomene.
'Kneel,' said the prefect.
'What is to be my sentence?' she cried.
'Kneel,' said he.
She knelt, trembling, fearfully, before him.
'I pronounce you Slave,' he said.
'No,' she cried, 'no!' But it had been done.
'Let her be collared,' he said.
The girl put her head down, sobbing.
