"Get on your back," he said.

Immediately, obediently, I lay supine before him.

"Raise your right knee, and extend your left leg," he said, palms of your hands at your sides, facing upward."

I immediately assumed this position. I felt very vulnerable, particularly, interestingly, as the palms of my hands were exposed. I began to breathe deeply. I was terrified. I also realized, suddenly, that I was very aroused, sexually, obeying him.

The man glanced to the side. He said something to the girl.

"He notes that you have not touched your breakfast," she said.

I moaned. I hoped that he was not displeased. It had been safe to displease the men I had hitherto known, or most of them. They might be displeased with impunity. I was afraid, however, to displease this man. I did not think he would accept being displeased. He, I was sure, would simply punish me, and well. He might even kill me.

He looked down at me.

I was much aroused. I whimpered. I expected him to rape me. I was even eager to be raped, anything to please him.

I felt his hand take my ankle. I was so charged with sensation that I almost fainted at the touch. Then I became aware that his grip was like steel. Then I saw him take a string from about his neck. On this string there was a tiny key. Startled, I felt the key inserted in the lock on my anklet. Then the anklet was removed. I lay trembling on the bed.

He stood there then, looking down at me, the anklet, string and key in his hand. I then realized, partly in relief, and, in a part of me, with disappointment, that I was not then, or at least not then, to be raped. I was not then to feel his strong hands on me, forcing me, as a woman, imperiously to his win.

"May I speak?" I whispered.

"Yes," he said.

"Who are you?" I asked. "Who is she? Where am I? What am I doing here? What do you want of me?"

"I am Ligurious, first minister of Corcyrus," be said. "She is unimportant. Her name is Susan. She is a slave."

"No," I said. "I mean, who is Ligurious? Who are you? I have never beard of you."

"You need know little more of me than that I am the first minister of Corcyrus," he said.

I looked at him. He must have some connection, of course, with the men who had come to my apartment. He had a key for the anklet.

"Where am V' I asked.

"In Corcyrus," he said.

"But where is Corcyrus?" I begged. "I do not even know in what part of the world I aml"

He looked at me, puzzled.

The girl said something to him. He smiled.

"Am I in Africa?" I asked. "Am I in Asia?"

"Have you not noticed subtle differences in the gravity here," he asked, "from what you have been accustomed to? Have you not noticed that the air here seems somewhat different from that with which you have hitherto been familiar?" "I have seemed to notice such things," I said, "but I was drugged in my apartment, Obviously such sensations are delusory, merely the effects of that drug."

"The drug," be said, "does not produce such effects."

"What are you telling me?" I asked, frightened.

"After a short while," he said, "you will no longer think of these things. You will not even notice them, or, at least, not consciously. You will have made your adjustments and accommodations. You will have become acclimated, so to speak. At most you may occasionally become aware that you are now experiencing a condition of splendid vitality and health."

"What are you telling me?" I asked, frightened.

"This is not Earth," be said. "This is another planet."

I regarded him, disbelievingly.

"Does this seem to be Earth to you?" he asked.

"No," I whispered.

"Does this seem to be a room of Earth to you?" he asked.

"No," I said.

"You have been brought here by spaceship," he said.

I could not speak.

"The technology involved is more sophisticated, more advanced, than that with which you are familiar," be said.

"But you speak English," I -said. "She speaks Englishl"

"I have learned some English," he said. "She, however, speaks it natively." He turned to the girl. He said something to her.

"I have been given permission to speak," she said. "I am from Cincinnati, Ohio, Mistress," she said.

"She was brought to this world more than two years ago," he said.

"My original name was Susan," she said. "My last name does not matter. When I became a slave, of course, my name was gone. Animals do not have names, except as their masters might choose to name them. The name "Susan' was again put upon me, but now, of course, I have it only as a slave name."

"Why was she brought here?" I asked.

"For the usual reason for which an Earth female is brought here," he said. "What is that?" I asked.

"To be a slave," he said.

He then turned to the girl and said something. She nodded.

He then turned again to me. "You may break position," he said.

I rolled to my stomach on the couch, clutching at it. I shuddered.

I was not on Earth.

"Why" have I been brought here?" I asked. "To be a slave, to be branded, to wear a collar, to serve some man as though he might be my master."

"He would be your master," said the man, very evenly, very quietly, very menacingly.

I nodded, frightened. It was true, of course. If I were a slave then he who was my master would indeed be my master, and totally. I could be owned as completely, and easily, as Susan, or any other woman.

"But I think you will be pleased to learn what we have in store for you," he said.

"What?" I asked, turning to my side, pulling the robe down on my thighs. "In time," he said, "I think things will become clearer to you." "I see," I said.

"Do you have any other questions?" he asked.

I half rose up on the couch, my left leg under me, my palms on the surface of the couch. "Am I still a virgin?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

This pleased me. I would not have wished to have lost my virginity while unconscious. A girl would at least like to be aware of it when it happens. Too, I was pleased because I thought that the possession of my virginity might make me somehow more valuable. Perhaps I could use it somehow to improve my position in this world. Perhaps I could somehow use it as a prize which I might award for gain, or as a bargaining device in some negotiation in which I might be involved. Then I looked into the eyes of Ligurious, fix minister of Corcyrus. I shuddered. I realized then that my virginity, on this world, was nothing, and that it might simply be taken from me, rudely and peremptorily, whenever men might please.

Ligurious then turned and left the room. As he had left the room, though be had scarcely noticed her, Susan had knelt, with her head to the tiles. She now rose to her feet.

"Earlier," I said, "your master, when beside the couch, said something to you. What was it?"

"it is his desire," she said, "that you eat."

I quickly left the couch and went to the small table, on which the tray reposed. I did not wish to displease Ligurious.

He was the sort of man who was to be obeyed, immediately and perfectly.

I loosened my robe and sat down, cross-legged, on the cushion before the table. I picked up a piece of the yellow bread.

"Oh, no, Mistress," said the girl, putting out her hand.

"That is how men sit. We are women. We kneel."

"I will sit," I told her.

"Mistress understands, surely," said the girl, in misery, "that I must make reports to Ligurious, my master."

"I will kneel," I said.

"That is much more lovely," said the girl, approvingly.

I then began to eat, kneeling. This posture, to be sure, though I do not think I would have admitted it to the girl, did strike me as being much more feminine than that which I had earlier adopted. Certainly, at least, it made me feel much more feminine. I wondered if there was a certain rightness to women kneeling. Certainly we look beautiful, kneeling. "Me posture, too, at least if we are permitted to keep our knees closed, permits us a certain modest reserve with respect to our intimacies. Too, it is a position which one may assume easily and beautifully, and from which it is possible to rise with both beauty and grace. To be sure, the position does suggest not only beauty and grace but also submissiveness.