'What will become of us?' asked the girl.
'Doubtless, the collar, and the service of a man,' she said.
'I do not want to serve men!' said the girl.
'As a slave you will have no choice but do so, and perfectly,' said the woman. 'I do not want to serve them!' wept the girl. 'I am afraid of men! They are brutes! I hate them!'
'Surely, from time to time,' said the woman, 'you have considered what it would be like to be their slave and serve them, fully, in all things.'
'Mother!' said the girl. 'You are my mother! How can you dare to even think of speaking to me like that!'
'You are not a little girl any longer,' said the woman, gently. 'You are now old enough to begin to understand such matters, Indeed, I think you do, or begin to, but do not admit this to me.' 'Mother!' said the girl, reproachfully.
'You are no longer a child,' she said. 'The years have passed. Are you not clear as to what has happened to you? Do you not understand the meaning of the wondrous changes which have transformed you into what you now are, the meaning of your new sensibilities, and feelings, and desires and instincts, and curves.' 'Do not speak to me like this!' said the girl.
'You are no longer a child,' she said. 'You are now a grown woman, indeed, a beautiful young woman, a desirable young woman.'
' 'Desirable! ' she said, scandalized. But I could tell she was thrilled to hear this.
'That at any rate, whatever you may personally think about it, is the judgement of men, who are the arbiters and masters in these matters,' she said. 'Indeed, that much is attested to by your presence on this chain.'
'Am I desirable,' she asked, 'truly desirablea€”as a female?'
'I believe so,' said the mother. 'And I am sure, sweet and dear daughter, that when you find yourself helpless in the arms of men, kicking and crying out, and squirming, their lust will make it quite clear to you.'
'You needn't put it just that way,' said the girl. She shrank back in the collar and chain. She put her hand to the collar. It was closed with a padlock. The collars these women wore had rings. It was by means of these rings, one to each collar, at the right side of the collar, and a second padlock, the bolt of which passed through the ring and a link of the chain, that the collars were attached to the common chain. In this fashion, a woman could be removed from the chain and yet be kept in a closed, padlocked collar. This was a different arrangement than had held the larger groups of women earlier, outside, at various points on the Avenue of Adminius. To be sure these were choice wenches. It was not surprising, then, that they should now find themselves the captives of a somewhat more refined constraint system. Additional security can be achieved, and often is, particularly when moving women, or when they are to be kept on the chain for a longer time, by riveting the collars shut. Needless to say, there is a large number of collar types, chaining arrangements, and security devices, the choices among them largely dictated by the motives and tastes of the master, and sometimes by his cultural background, all of which serve to keep women in perfect custody.
'True,' said the woman.
'But you do think I am desirable?'
'Yes,' said the woman.
'Oh,' said the girl pleased.
'You are now ready for the collar,' said the woman.
'No!' said the girl.
'You will find you have little choice in the matter,' she said.
'I will resist! said the girl. 'I will be strong!'
'And doubtless, after a test period, if they are so kind as to give you one, you will simply be killed.'
'Killed?' she gasped.
'Yes,' said the woman. 'Men are only human. They do not, nor should they have, endless patience, particularly with the sort of animal which you will then be. It is not like having a foolish free companion, one who knows no better, who will patiently work with you for years, trying to help you become a woman.' 'I will try to be strong!' she wept.
'Such expressions often constitute but transparent concealments for envy and resentment,' she said. 'Consider whether or not this might be true in your case. Similarly, even worse do not use them to disguise your fear of men and of your own true nature. Too, they are but ill used when put forth to praise what may be actually only sexual inertness, neurotic rigidity or false pride. Do not concern yourself in this matter, sweet daughter, with the values of others, and particularly of men, or of those who desire to be imitative of men, but seek to find your own female values, the deepest and most feminine values in your being, those of your deepest self. Try to find out who you are, in the depths of your most complete femaleness, and then dare to be what, truly, you are.' 'You are my mother,' she said. 'You must not talk to me in this way.' 'Perhaps you are right,' said the woman. 'And perhaps I would not myself even dare to do so if I were not here with you, naked, in a collar, too, with a number on my breast.'
'It is shameful for you to speak so!' said the girl, angrily.
'I want you to live,' said the woman. 'And I want you to be happy, truly happy.' 'Shame,' scolded the girl.
'It is my love that prompts me to speak so,' said the woman.
'I hate you!' said the girl.
'Have I truly touched something so deep in you, so familiar, so recurrent, yet so frightening, that you dare not face it,' she asked, 'that you would lash out so at me?'
'You are a terrible person!' said the daughter.
'I am one who loves you, more deeply than you can ever know,' said the woman. «Liar, wept the girl.
'No,' she said. 'I am trying to tell you an end to lies.'
'Naked female!' said the girl.
'You said earlier, when first we discovered one another here, both stripped prisoners, the loot of soldiers, on a common chain, when I said that I had thought you might have escaped, that you had not, that the collar was on your neck.'
'Yes,' said the girl.
'Is it on your neck?' she asked.
'Yes, of course,' said the girl. Almost inadvertently, lifting both hands, she touched it.
'Then there is no escape for you,' she said.
'I know,' whispered the girl. 'Nor for you.'
'I know,' said the woman.
The girl sobbed.
'Surely you understand what this means,' she said. 'Soon, my lovely daughter, you will learn the delicate, lascivious draping of slave garments and the tying of slave girdles, in such a way as to accentuate your beauty for the pleasure of a master. You will be taught to kneel, and caress, and do things you have not now dreamed of. You will learn to wear chains attractively and to move in them in such a way as to drive men wild with passion. You will be taught to cook and sew, and to polish boots and scrub floors. You will learn to bring a whip to a man in your teeth, on your hands and knees, head down. You will learn to love, and to serve. You will learn to be a slave.
'No! No!' said the girl.
'Soon your lovely thigh will feel the kiss of the blazing iron, and you will be sold,' she said. 'You will then have entered upon your new reality. You will then have begun your new life.
'Mother,' protested the girl.
'Beware of free women,' said the woman, 'for you will be altogether different from them.'
'Do not speak to me in this fashion!' begged the girl.
'I must speak to you,' she said. 'I do not know how long we might have to speak together.'
'What do you mean?' asked the girl.
'At any moment a man might put a whip between us, and stop our talking,' she said. 'Too, soon we may never see one another again.'
'Mother,' she said, frightened.
