'Of course,' I said. 'You are very beautiful, your movements, your expressions, and such.'
'Then some men do pay attention to the women they do these things to,' she said.
'Certainly,' I said. 'Almost invariably.'
'Oh! Oh!' she said.
'See?' I said.
'You give me such pleasure,' she whispered.
'You look well, bound,' I said.
'Surely you jest,' she said, 'in speaking of taking me among the men of Ar.'
'No,' I said.
'Then it is truly your intention to take me among them?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
I continued to attend to her.
'I do not wish to go among them!' she said.
'I do not blame you,' I said.
'It will be extremely dangerous,' she said.
'I do not think they will see the Lady Ina in a small, well-curved, half-naked rence girl, in slave strips, perhaps bound.'
'Let us run away, together,' she said. 'They need never know.'
'No,' I said.
'I will try to be very pleasing to you,' she said.
'You will be that way anyway,' I said. She looked up at me.
'And if you were a slave,' I said, 'for that hint of bargaining, you would be severely beaten, if not slain.'
'I am not a slave!' she said.
'And that is why I do not now severely beat you, or slay you,' I said.
'Then my will means nothing!' she said.
'That is exactly correct,' I said.
I then began to once more conduct her to the heights. To be sure, her entire demeanor was now half in consternation, and shaken with the import of my intentions.
'How can you do this to me,' she asked, 'forcing me to feel these things, after what you have told me?'
'I am not yet through with you,' I said. 'Ohhh,' she said. 'Ohhh!' 'See?' I said.
'You are pretty, Ina,' I said.
'A girl is pleased!' she said, bitterly. 'Are you being impertinent?' I asked. 'No!' she said.
'I thought that perhaps you were,' I said.
'No!' she said.
'Perhaps you wish to be lashed with my belt?'
'No, no!' she said. 'Who is pleased?' I asked. 'Ina is pleased!' she said. 'You say that well, Ina,' I said. She looked up at me. 'Repeat it,' I said.
'Ina is pleased,' she said.
'I like the name 'Ina' on you,' I said.
' 'On me'?' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'You speak of it as though it were a brand,' she said.
'More in the nature of a collar,' I said.
'A collar?' she said.
'Yes,' I said. 'Collars can be changed.'
' 'Ina' is not a slave name,' she said. 'It is my own name, in my own right! I am a free woman! It is my own name, in my own right! It is not a slave name!'
'But if you become a slave,' I said, 'you would have no name.'
She looked at me.
'Is that not true?' I asked her.
'Yes,' she said. 'That is true.'
'And then,' I said, 'if a master wished, he might name you, say, 'Ina'.'
'Of course,' she said.
'What would your name then be?'
' 'Ina',' she said.
'And would it be your true name?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'But it would then be only a slave name, would it not?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said. I regarded her, amused.
'Yes,' she said. 'Then it would be only a slave name!'
'Oh!' she said. 'Stop! Stop! I am there! I am frightened! I dare go no further!'
'But you shall,' I said.
'Whip me!' she said.
'That will not be necessary,' I said.
'I dare not go even a hair's breadth further,' she whispered.
'Have no fear,' I said. 'The choice is no longer yours.'
'Whose then?' she asked.
'Mine,' I said.
'Yours?'
'Yes,' I said. 'When it pleases me; in a moment, I shall force you.'
'I am at your mercy,' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Why are you doing this to me?' she asked.
'It pleases me,' I said. 'Too, I think it would be good for you, particularly now, as you are soon to be taken among the men of Ar, to discover what men can do to you.'
She pushed back a little, in the sand. This amused me. Did she think she could escape? 'I am afraid,' she said.
'Women survive such things,' I assured her.
'I am bound!' she said.
'Do not fret,' I said.
'Beast, beast, beast!' she said.
'And you are now to discover what it is to be a pretty little female beast,' I said.
'Do it to me!' she begged. 'No, don't!'
I regarded her.
'I am at a gate,' she said. 'I am on a bridge! I am on a mountain. There are flowers. I am on a cliff! I am afraid!'
I looked at her. She was very beautiful.
'Have mercy!' she said. 'Let me go back!'
'No,' I said. 'You will not-be permitted to go back.'
'Let me stay where I am then!' she wept.
'Surely you understand that that is impossible,' I said.
'Whip me, then!' she said. 'Drag me in a collar and chains, like a slave girl!'
'Your touch!' she wept.
'I am now forcing you to go where I have decided you shall go,' I said, 'where t is my wish that you shall go.'
'No!' she said.
'And where, too, it is your wish to go,' I said.
'No!' she said.
'Your touch,' she wept. 'Your touch!'
