Sometimes something like anarchy seemed to reign in the streets. Certain gardens, we had gathered, had been breached, and plundered, their contents taken away, to what places and for what purposes who knew. But our house, I understood, was immune from such ravages.

Our house, it seemed, enjoyed some special status. It stood high, it seemed, in the favor of those who controlled the city. We had been, until now, at least, exempted from exactions, confiscations, taxations, and such. To be sure, it was in its way an uneasy existence for us, in the garden, for we could hear what occasionally went on in the streets, on the other side of the wall, and we had gathered, from remarks of guards, overheard, and such, that not every house in the city, with such a garden, had been spared rude, abrupt attentions. In the garden we were pampered and soft. We need only please and be beautiful. We had silks, perfumes, cosmetics, and jewelry. Let such things be our concern. We were ignorant, almost entirely so, of what went on outside. Indeed, that was appropriate for us. It was not ours to be informed.

That is not the sort we were. Sometimes, when there were harsh sounds in the street outside, I looked at some of the others, and saw them regarding one another, fear in their eves, drawing their silks more closely about themselves. There was a world on the other side of the wall, a world quite different from that to which they were accustomed. It was a harsh, violent, impatient, exacting world. Were they to find themselves within it I did not doubt but what they would discover their lives considerably transformed. I myself, however, did not wish to remain in the garden. I had seen a world much more real outside the wall. It was in that world that I wished to be, even with its cruelties and dangers. It was not that I was dissatisfied with my condition, you understand, because I had come to understand what I was, and to rejoice in it. It was, rather, that I wished to be what I was outside the wall, not within the wall, not within the garden.

Indeed, within the wall, I could not fully realize my natural condition, not to its fullest extent, what I was.

One required for that a full world, with its thousands of ramifications and perils. I would have preferred a rag, if permitted that, outside the wall, to the silks and jewels of a favorite within.

I had heard voices coming from the house. I had then, swiftly, as swiftly as I could, given the stones, withdrawn from the wall. It had hurt to do so, cruelly, but it would be far worse to be discovered there, as the wall is forbidden. Indeed, it is forbidden even to enter upon the expanse of stones inside it, at its foot. Oh, I should not have gone to it, of course. It is forbidden. I had looked about, however. I had done my best to make sure that I had not been observed.

I had been sure that I had not been observed.

It had been my intention to circle about, through the shrubbery, and the tiny, lovely trees in the garden, to the vicinity of the fountain.

But I had scarcely entered upon the gra.s.s when I had heard a man's voice. "Stop," he had said.

I had knelt, of course, immediately, and put my head down to the gra.s.s, the palms of my hands, too, on the gra.s.s.

How could it be a man, here, at this time of day? I did not raise my head. I had not received permission to do so.

I did not break position.

I had not received permission to do so.

I was in light silk. It was extremely brief, and was, for most practical purposes, diaphanous.

Certainly it left little doubt as to my lineaments.

I knelt before him, my head down to the gra.s.s, my palms on the gra.s.s.

Who was he? What could he want?

SIX

"On your belly," had said a men.

I complied.

It is unthinkable on this world that such a command not be obeyed instantly, or, at least, that one such as I not obey it instantly.

And so I lay on my belly, on the colorful tiles, in one of the sales rooms in the pens.

Too, of course, one does not simply sprawl on one's belly. There are ways, diverse ways, of a.s.suming this position. We are taught them. Other women, women unlike us, one supposes, do not know them.

They, too, of course, can be taught. In this house, such a command, unqualified, requires that the head be turned to the left and the arms be placed down, beside the body, the palms up. A slightly different command requires the crossing of the wrists behind the back and the crossing of the ankles, as well. This is sometimes used when one is to be bound. If one receives permission to look up, or is commanded to do so, which is frightening, the hands are normally placed to the sides, at the shoulders, and one then lifts one's upper body. The belly itself, of course, remains in contact with the surface on which one lies, the gra.s.s, the dirt, the gravel, the deck, the floor, the tiles, whatever the surface may be.

But there are numerous variations in such things, as there are in ways to kneel, ways to hurry, ways to serve, ways to crawl to the furs, and such. There are even ways in which the whip, if called for, is to be brought. In our training, as you might suppose, we learn many things.

In time our training, extending even to the tiniest nuances of att.i.tude, and to the smallest movements and gestures, is internalized, indeed, in such a way that we are no longer, or seldom, even aware of it, it having become, in effect, the way we are. There is a world of difference between us and certain other women, women unlike us, as you might suppose, but what is perhaps less obvious, and what might be pointed out, is that there are considerable differences amongst us, even those such as I, as well. Consider merely the matter of training. One of us who is trained will normally, other things being equal, be appraised more highly than one who is not, one who is superbly trained will normally, other things being equal, be appraised more highly than one who is merely well trained, and so on. I refer, of course, to appraisals in a practical, factual manner, having to do, for example, with what men will pay for us.

"She bellies well," observed a man.

"Has she been long in the pens?" inquired another. "Not long," said he who had first spoken.

"Has she made progress?" asked a fellow.

"She has made excellent progress," said another.

"Can she understand what we are saying?" asked another.

"Yes," said another.

"She is quite intelligent then," asked one of the men. I did not recognize his voice. I did not think I knew him. I had not, of course, looked boldly about. Too, when one is on one's belly, with the head turned to the side, one is scarcely in a position to study the countenances about one.

Too, even if one is standing, or working, or serving, one seldom meets the eyes of such men directly.

"Considering her origin, and what she is, she is extremely intelligent," said a man.

"Good," said the fellow who had spoken before, him I did not recognize.

But, to be sure, he was with three or four others who, too, I did not know, or doubted that I knew.

They were from outside the house. I was sure of that.

"She is absolutely ignorant of the political situation?" asked the fellow I did not know.

"Yes," said a man.

"She is from the world, Earth," pointed out another.

"There is such a place?" asked a man, one of those I did not know.

"Yes," he was a.s.sured.

"It is an excellent source of stock," said another.

"And she has only recently arrived on our world," asked one of those I did not know.

"Recently enough," he heard.

"She has been in the pens?" asked another, one of those I did not know.

"She has not been outside them since her arrival," said a man.

That was true. I had little, if any, idea of the nature of the world to which I had been brought.

"Are you interested in her?" asked one of the men I knew, one from the house.

"Have her stand, and turn," said a man. I heard the snapping of fingers.

Quickly I rose to my feet, and turned, before them.

"Interesting," said a man.

"Clasp your hands behind the back of your head," said a fellow from the house.

I complied.

"Arch your back," said another.

My left foot was now slightly advanced. I was bent backwards, my back arched. My hands were clasped behind the back of my head.

"Yes," said another. "Interesting."

"Belly," said the fellow who had first spoken to me.

Instantly I returned to my belly, as I had been before, my head turned to the left, my arms back, down at my sides, my hands turned so that my palms, their softness, faced up, exposed.

The new fellows, those who were strangers in the house, I gathered, were not to be shown more, not without having requested it, it seemed, not without having, in effect, committed themselves to some degree, in virtue of the expression of some explicit, rather more tangible, interest. Those of the house were skilled in what they were doing.

"Perhaps we should look at others," said one of the fellows I did not know.

"We have items from various cities, and from villages and districts, brought in from time to time, requisitioned, and such," said the fellow from the house. "We have an excellent item from Besnit, blond, whose hair comes to her ankles."

"It must be an outworlder," said a stranger, impatiently, he who seemed to be first among those I did not know.

"That was my understanding," agreed the fellow from the house.

"But there must be other outworlders," said one of the strangers, rather lightly.

"Yes, we still have several," said a fellow from the house. "As you recall, you looked upon them last night, by lamplight, while they slept, in their kennels. This one, as I understand it, was your choice."

I lay there. I had not realized that I, and the others, had been looked upon last night, while we slept.

There is, of course, no way to prevent that.

"You have seen the papers," said one of the fellows of the house to someone "You have seen the reports. You have spoken to the teachers, and trainers."

"They have other outworlders," said the cautious fellow, one of the strangers.

"We do not have as many as we did," said a fellow of the house. "They tend to be distributed about. We get only our share. Too, of those we receive, we normally have orders for several.

Some we ship without training, to other houses and such. You must understand that, over the past few years, as their value has come to be more generally recognized, such items have become more popular."

"And more expensive," observed a stranger, irritably.

"Sometimes," it was admitted.

"Are you sure you want an outworlder?" asked one of the fellows of the house.

"Yes," he was told.

"Given your specifications," said the fellow from the house, first among those of the house, "I really think this item is your likely choice."

There was a silence.

"You must understand," said the fellow from the house, first among them, "that your specifications are not easy to fulfill. If an item is reasonably skillful in the language it is not likely to be ignorant of the world, and, if it is ignorant of the world, it is less likely to be adept with the language."

"This one is intelligent?"

"Quite so, subject of course, as made clear, to her origin, and what she is."

"Let us consider others," said the cautious fellow.

"We have seen them. We have examined their papers, and such," said the stranger who, I took it, was first among them.

"We have several items in stock," said the fellow from the house, who was first among those of the house. "You may examine them, if you wish, more so than you have already done.

Nonetheless I really think that this item is the one best for your purposes. It should well satisfy your needs. I conjecture that it should do quite nicely." He added, "I am quite familiar with our current inventory."

"You could examine items at another house," said another fellow of the house.

There was silence.

"Are you interested only in an item which satisfies the criteria you have made clear to me?"

asked he who was first of those of the house.

"I do not understand," said a man.

"I might, with your permission," said the first fellow, "mention that this particular item has certain qualities to recommend it, should you be interested in them, beyond being intelligent, an outworlder, having developed, in a short time, a modest command of the language, and being ignorant of political intricacies."

"Other qualities?" asked a fellow.

"Other than those which are quite evident to your senses, other than those which you could detect by merely laying eyes upon her," said the fellow from the house, first among those of the house.

There was laughter.

I lay there, before them.

"Are such things also of interest to you?" asked he who was first among those of the house, first, at any rate, among those present.