cords attached sometimes to the ends of the yoke, that she may be pulled about, turned this way and that, and, in general, moved about and controlled as the slaves wish, until they weary of the sport and choose to have their way with her. I gathered, however, that this had not been done, at least as yet, with the lovely slave before us. She had, apparently, been tied to a stake for the men once or twice. The usual procedure, of course, is simply to put the girl in the common kennel after dark, where she is utilized, serving muchly, sometimes handed about, from man to man.
'But that is not our intention,' I said.
'Master?' she said.
I put one of the vessels of water on the yoke. She had to bend down, that its weight was on the ground. Then I put the other vessel, too, on the yoke. She squirmed in the yoke, she sobbed.
'What is to be my second discipline?' she asked.
'Stand,' I said.
With difficulty she stood. She could hardly stand upright. She wavered a little. 'Am I not to serve?' she asked.
'No,' I said.
She looked at me in misery.
'That is the second discipline,' I said.
She closed her eyes, and tears forced themselves between those clenched eyelids. 'I am not a free woman!' she said. 'I am a slave. I need your touch!'
'It is the second discipline,' I said.
'Please, please!' she wept.
'You are dismissed,' I informed her.
'Please, Master!' she wept.
'Turn about, and be about your labors,' said I, 'field slave.'
She moved then a little from the vicinity of the tank, a few steps. The weight was considerable for her. She staggered once or twice. She turned to regard us, pathetically.
'Away, field slave!' I said, with a gesture.
'Yes, Master,' she sobbed, and turned away. We watched her moving slowly away, staggering at times, across the fields.
'How could you do that to her?' asked Marcus.
'Cuff her?' I asked, puzzled.
'Of course not,' he said. 'That was nothing.'
'She thought it something,' I said.
'She was let off easily,' he said.
'True,' I said.
'Doubtless she will in time, in trembling gratitude, realize how easily she was let off.'
'Even as easily as she was let off,' I said, 'I do not think she will soon again consider lying to a free man.'
'Probably not,' he said.
I took saddle.
'What would you have done?' I asked.
'I would have put her under the belt,' he said.
'And had it been Phoebe?'
'Phoebe knows better,' he said.
'But if it had been her?'
'A number of disciplines,' he said, 'over successive days.'
'What did you meant then,' I asked, 'how could you do that to her?'
'Sending her packing,' he said, 'rather than putting her to use.'
'Should you speak that way,' I asked, 'of the former free woman, Lavinia of Ar?'
'Be serious,' he said.
'Was it not merciful?' I asked.
'Certainly not,' he said.
'As a discipline?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Speak,' I said.
'You dominated her, making her feel her womanhood, and its relationship to the male,' he said, 'and then, her belly ready, aching, vulnerably aflame, helplessly stirred, you sent her packing.'
'What would you have done?' I asked.
'Nothing so heartless, so cruel,' he said.
'You are speaking of the second discipline,' I said.
'Of course,' he said.
'What, then? I asked.
'I would have whipped her.' He said. 'Then I would have flung her to the ground, thrust her about, let her feel the side of my foot, such things, and then, when I wished, I would have knelt her, her head to the ground, and used her.'
'In such fashion? I asked.
'Yes,' he said.
'I see,' I said.
'Slaves understand such things,' he said.
'Of course,' I said.
'And I do not think she would have been likely to commit the same error again.'
'Probably not,' I said.
'No,' he said, 'I do not think so.'
'You grant, however,' I said, 'that my discipline is also likely to be effective?'
'I would think so,' he said. 'But I think mine might have been measured more perfectly to the slave, her needs and her act.'
'You would have subjected her to use discipline?'
'Of course,' he said.
'But we do not own her,' I said.
'It does not matter,' he said.
'True,' I said.
Use discipline is within the prerogatives of a free person.
'You think my discipline was too severe?' I said.
'Yes,' he said.
'I know a place,' I said, 'where such would commonly not be thought to be discipline at all but an escape from one.'
'That is hard to believe,' he said.
'A place in which it is culturally acceptable for the most basic needs of females to be denied, frustrated and ignored.'
'Do not jest about matters of such gravity,' he said.
'There are complex ideologies involved,' I said, 'the purport of which is that nature and biology are mistaken, and the ideologies, whatever they happen to be, for there are several of them, even if contrived and inconsistent, are correct.'
'Such a mad place cannot exist,' he said.
'Perhaps not,' I said.
'Surely you grant that your discipline, denying her slave use, was severe.'
'She is a slave,' I said. 'Anything can be done with her.'
'By her Master,' he said. 'Not just anyone.'
'True,' I said. One did not have the right, for example, to kill or maim the slave of another, any more than
