"There is writing here on the collar," said Lola. "It says, 'I am the property of Jason of Victoria. "

"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.

"It will well serve to identify you, will it not?" she asked.

"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.

"Is what it says true?" asked Lola.

"Yes, Mistress," said the girl, "it is true!" I thought I saw her shudder with pleasure on the tiles.

In a moment Lola had replaced the mirror in the chest, and closed the chest. She then came to where I stood. Together we regarded the prone slave. "She is a pretty little thing," said Lola.

"I think she will prove satisfactory," I said, "for the purposes for which I require her, those of a common slave, a low slave, one to be set chores about the house, and one from whom full domestic services will be required."

Lola looked at me.

"'Domestic services' in the Gorean sense," I said.

Lola laughed. Certainly the former Miss Henderson, of Earth, should have her sensuous possibilities exploited. How absurd it would be to permit those conquered curves to languish.

"What are your commands, Master?" asked Lola.

"In two days, in the evening," I said, "I shall have a small supper here, nothing pretentious, just something for a few friends. Substantially the affair will be catered by the tavern of Tasdron, but there will be much shopping and cooking for you, too, to do."

"I understand, Master," said Lola.

"The house, of course, is to be spotless," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"And I shall also depend upon you for decorations, that the house may appear festive, lamps and ribbons, and flowers, and such."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Too, see to it that some small, tasteful entertainment is provided."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"If things are not perfect," I said, "I shall not be pleased."

"Master will be pleased," she said.

"It is late now," I said.

"What of her?" asked Lola, gesturing with her head toward the prone slave.

We walked over to where the former Miss Henderson lay. I turned her over with my foot, and looked down upon her.

"She does not even know how to lie at a man's feet," said Lola. She then crouched down and turned the girl's hands so that their backs rested on the tiles, and the soft, open palms were vulnerably exposed to me. Also she lifted her left knee, that it might be flexed. "There," she said, "that is better." There are many ways, of course, for a woman to lie at a man's feet. Lola had selected, however, one of the loveliest.

The girl looked up at me, frightened.

I walked about her and, with my foot, turned her again to her stomach.

"What is to be done with her?" asked Lola.

"Clean her stinking slave's body," I said, "and then kennel her for the night."

"Look," said Lola, suddenly, "she is unconscious." She bent down beside the girl. "She has fainted," she laughed.

"It has been hard on her," I said. "She had to learn much this evening."

"In a collar a girl must learn quickly," said Lola.

"It is true," I said.

I turned away. I was weary.

"Master," called Lola.

"Yes," I said.

"How is she to be treated?"

"You are first girl," I said. "You hold switch rights over her. See that she is worked well."

"Full discipline?" asked Lola.

"Of course," I said.

"Excellent, Master," said Lola.

I hung the slave whip on its hook, and then went to the stairs, and, wearily, began to climb them. "Master," called Lola. When I reached the height of the stairs and stood upon the landing before my bedroom door, I turned to look down upon Lola. "Yes," I said. "Are you certain that, when I have cleaned her, you do not want me to send her to your room?" she asked. "No," I said. "I do not even want to see her until the party."

"Yes, Master," said Lola. "Master."

"Yes," I said.

"You mentioned entertainment."

"Yes," I said.

"Is this pretty little slave," asked Lola, indicating the unconscious former Miss Henderson, "to be included in the entertainment?"

"Of course," I said.

"Another bit of larma, Master?" asked the slave, kneeling behind me and to my left. I turned and, from where I sat cross-legged behind the low table, removed a small, crisp disk of fried larma, with a browned-honey sauce, from the silver tray. I regarded the slave. She put her head down, deferentially. She wore a tasteful garment of bluish gauze, in three layers, which fluffed about her. It came high on her thighs. I could see that her breasts in the garment, as she knelt, were exquisite. Her arms and feet were bare. Her hair was quite dark. My collar was lovely on her throat. I then turned my attention again to the dancers.

There were three of them in blue silk and golden collars. Lola had been fortunate enough to make arrangements for their rental only this morning. They belonged to a fellow who was en route to Port Cos, and thence to Turmus, and thence to the island of Cos itself, where it was his intention to exhibit and vend them. She had found them in holding cages, near the spice wharf. The address of their master, who was residing in an inn nearby, was given to her by their keeper. They were due to be shipped west to Port Cos at noon tomorrow. Tonight, however, he was pleased to make some coins on them.

"They are beautiful," said Glyco, the merchant of Port Cos to whom we owed so much. It was he who, in effect, had organized the resistance of the river towns to the pirates, and had had the good sense and fortune to recruit the redoubtable Callimachus of Port Cos as his field commander, a man without whose military skills and reputation on the river our projects might have been doomed to failure.

"Thank you," I said.

I looked about the table. Seven men, including myself, were present, Glyco, high merchant of Port Cos; Tasdron, Administrator of Victoria; Aemilianus, leader of the naval forces of Ar upon the Vosk; Calliodorus, captain of the _Tais_; and my friends, Callimachus and Miles of Vonda, who had brought with him his slave, Florence. Earlier, as a portion of our entertainment, she had played on the lyre, and sung for us. She had been warmly applauded, which, I think, pleased muchly both the shy slave and her master. Miles of Vonda had had her trained in these skills. As a free woman she had been, in effect, without accomplishments. Now she had additional ways in which to please her master. She now knelt behind her master. She wore a yellow tunic, and her collar.

I watched Shirley, the blond, voluptuous slave whom I had taken from Reginald, of the _Tamira_, in the battle on the river. She was one of three women whom I had had following our victory over the pirates, the other two being Lola and the former Miss Henderson. For this night Lola, who was first girl, had dressed Shirley much like the other slave, save that the gauze of Shirley's garment was yellow.

For the last few days I had been boarding Shirley at a kennel in Victoria, but I had had her brought home this evening that she might help with the serving, and for another reason. She, kneeling, poured wine from a narrow, long-spouted silver vessel into the cup of Aemilianus, of Ar's Station. At the kennel, incidentally, I had arranged for Shirley to receive the whipping which had been due to her for having lifted her head without permission on the deck of the _Tina_. Gorean masters seldom forget such details, and their girls know it. This helps in the maintenance of their discipline.

Lola was in the kitchen, supervising the food and service. She was not to be permitted to present herself until later, and then she would do so in the manner of my choosing. She knew only that she was in some way to be involved in my entertainment.