"Then slavers seldom permit their girls to be fully used?" she asked.

"Not for free," I said. "A common arrangement, however, is to charge a prospective buyer, if he wishes it. a rent fee, which fee may then be, should he want the girl, applied to her purchase price."

"That seems sound business" she said.

"I think so," I said. "Why should a slaver give away the use of his properties?" I asked. "After all that is how he makes his living, buying and selling, and leasing and renting women."

"Of course," she said. "But there are the purple booth sales," she said.

'Those are usually for a well-fixed clientele, known to the slaver," I said. "They are known to him as serious, bonafide buyers. If they do not buy one girl, they will probably buy another."

"Oh," she said.

"But what of large, public sales?" she pressed.

"In which, say, an auction block would be used?" I asked.

She shuddered. "Yes," she said.

"Such sales are common on Gor," I said.

"Common?" she gasped.

"Certainly," I said. "Many women are auctioned from the block in a given year in a given city," I said. "Do you remember the large blue and yellow pavilion near the platforms where Imnak bought you?"

"Yes" she said.

"Women were being auctioned there," I said.

"Oh," she said. "I was not," she said.

"You were not regarded as being sufficiently interesting at that time to be put on the block," I said. "The platforms were good enough for your sort."

"But I am beautiful," she said.

"On Gor," I said, "beautiful women are plentiful, and cheap."

"Am I more interesting now, Master?" she wheedled.

"Yes," I said, "You are perhaps worthy now to grace the block-"

'Thank you, Master," she said.

"— in a minor sale in a small city," I added.

"Oh, Master!" she laughed.

"I jest," I said, "but, too, I am serious. You will grow inslavery and beauty. Who knows what a woman's potential is for love?"

She looked at me.

"You have far to go, my lovely little tart." I said. "But in the end I think you might be worthy of the central block, at the Curulean in Ar."

She kissed me, frightened. "What a fearful thing it is to be a slave girl, and what a wonderful thing," she said.

I said nothing.

"How does one know, on the block," she asked, suddenly, "if a girl is any good?"

"A certification of a girl's heat, in certain cities," I said, "is sometimes furnished, with the slaver's guarantee, among the documents of sale. Her degree of heat, in such a situation would also be listed of course, among her other properties, on her sales sheet, posted in the vicinity of the exhibition cages, available twenty Ahn before her sale. It would also be proclaimed, of course, in such a situation, along with her weight and collar size, and such things, from the block, during her sale."

"Is that sort of thing done in many cities?" she asked.

"In very few," I said, "and for a very good reason."

"Out of respect for the girls?" she asked.

"Of course not." I said. "It is rather done in few cities because of the possibility of fraud on the part of the buyer. He might use the girl for a month and then claim a refund in virtue of the guarantee. Slavers prefer for their sales to be final. Too, other problems exist For example, a free woman who, before her sale, is cold may become, after her sale, knowing herself then as a vended slave, helpless and torrid in the arms of a master. Similarly a girl who is only average, generally, so to speak, may, at the very glance of a given master, one who is special to her for no reason that is clear, become so weak and paga hot that she can scarcely stand."

"Generally, then," she said, "the buyer would not know, from the block information, whether the girl would be any good or not?"

"He will certainly know if he, personally, finds her attractive. Too, even a frigid woman, in the arms of a Gorean master, can be made to sweat and cry."

"Frigidity is not permitted to the slave girl?" she asked.

"No," I said. "The master will not accept it"

"Poor girl," she laughed.

"Frigidity is a neurotic luxury," I told her. "It is allowed only to free women, probably because no one cares that much about them. Indeed, frigidity is one of the titles and permissions implicated in the lofty status of a free woman. For many it is, in effect, their proudest possession. It distinguishes them from the lowly slave girl. It proves to themselves and others that they are free. Should they be enslaved, of course, it is, for better or for worse, taken from them, like their property and their clothing."

"Not all free women are frigid," she said.

"Of course not," I said, "but there is actually a scale, so to speak, in such matters. But just as some free women are insufficiently inert, or cold, to qualify, strictly, as frigid, perhaps to their chagrin, so none of them, I think, are sufficiently ignited to qualify in the ranges of "slave-girl hot." so to speak. A free woman's sexuality may generally be thought of in terms of degrees of inertness, or coolness; a slave girl's sexuality, on the other hand, may generally be thought of in terms of degrees of responsive passion, or heat. Some slave girls are hotter than others, of course, just as some free women are less cold than others, whether this pleases them or not. Whereas the free woman normally maintains a plateau of frigidity, however, the slave girl will usually increase in degrees of heat, this a function of her master, his strength, her training, and such. The slave girl grows in passion; the free woman languishes in her frigidity, congratulating herself on the starvation of her needs."

"Do free women know what they are missing?" she asked.

"I think, on some level, they do," I said. "Else the resentment and hatred they bear the slave girl would be inexplicable."

"I see," she said.

"Beware the free woman," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"On the block, of course," I said, "the girl is under the control of the auctioneer, who functions as her master while she is being sold. He will often exhibit her skillfully. A good auctioneer is very valuable to a slaver's house. He will guide her with his voice, and touches, or strokes, of his whip. He may put her through slave paces on the block, forcing her to assume postures and attitudes. If she is a dancer, she may be forced to dance. She may be, if he sees fit, publicly caressed on the block."

"Before the buyers!" she said.

"Of course," I said. "It does not matter. She is a slave."

"Of course," she whispered. "She is only a slave."

"It is not unusual," I said, "to even send a girl aroused onto the block, that the nature of her movements may make clear her needs to the audience."

"And should such a girl be caressed?" she asked.

"She might enter orgasm on the very block," I said. "Sometimes it is necessary to whip such a woman from the feet of the auctioneer. At the very least she will beg to serve a master within the very Ahn, either a buyer or one of the slaver's men, to achieve closure on the arousal which has been inflicted upon her."

"How cruel Goreans are!" she said.

"Is this more cruel than making clear the color of her hair and eyes?" I asked. "The Goreans are buying the whole girl."

She looked down.

"Do not fear," I said. "Normally there is no time for a lengthy sale. One must take a few bids and then thrust the wench from the block, to make room for the next girl. A sale often takes no more time than one or two Ehn. Sometimes four hundred girls or more must be sold from a single block in a given night."

"One might be exhibited and sold before one scarcely knew what was occurring," she said.

"I suppose so," I said. "I am not a woman."

"But I am," she said.

"It is thus likely to be your problem and not mine," I told her.