lifted to him.
“I would suppose so,” said Rodriguez, “somewhere, somehow. These needs, you must understand, can be suppressed, fought, resisted, and such. Certainly her frustration suggests that something is being frustrated. Her misery indicates that something is wrong. Her frigidity, as it seems rather of the defensive, hostile, frightened kind, rather than that of simplistic anesthesia, suggests that something, awakened, of which she is at least dimly aware, is being blocked and denied. Too, of course, energies can be thwarted and diverted, and twisted, and turned to other outlets, for example, to the seeking of power, to the grasping for position, to the scratching for authority, such things, or others, in an ill-fated, belligerent attempt on her part, which she knows is doomed to failure, to conform to a culturally prescribed stereotype, in effect, to prove that she is the same as a man, a denouement which, incidentally, in my opinion, she does not really want. Thus, her pretenses, her postures, her behaviors and such, represent in their way not only the uncritical adherence to a perverse conditioning program but more importantly a reaction against something, an attempt to deny something she senses in herself, and fears in herself, that they constitute an attempt, in its way, and a rather hysterical attempt in its way, to repudiate her belly knowledge, so to speak, what she knows about herself ultimately, that she, a female, belongs at a man’s feet.”
“I am wet, and cold,” said Brenner. “I think I will change, and shower.”
“Well,” said Rodriguez, “you have made progress. You have admitted that you are a human being, that you have sexual needs.”
Rodriguez glanced at the bell, which would ring for maid service.
Brenner pretended not to notice. He found a robe in his bag, and some dry clothes. He could no longer hear the vacuum in the hall. But he did not doubt but what there would be a maid on cal1.
“Your next step,” said Rodriguez, “now that you have acknowledged that you have sexual needs, is to satisfy them.” He pointed to the bell.
“No, no!” said Brenner, hastily, frightened. The bell seemed very large on the wall, very prominent, very visible. Though, to be sure, it was actually rather small, and discreet.
Rodriguez looked at him, puzzled.
Brenner shook his head. It was, after all, one thing to have sexual needs, and quite another to satisfy them.
“As you wish,” said Rodriguez.
“Where are you going?” asked Brenner.
“Out,” said Rodriguez.
“Wait for me,” said Brenner. “I’m coming with you.”
He did not wish to be left alone with the bell. Too, what if there should be the small knock on the door? What if a maid should check with him, to see if he wanted anything? Certainly he would not want anything. No! He would want nothing, nothing!
At the door to the bath Brenner turned. He looked at the disarranged covers on his bed, where the maid had lain.
“I’ll only be a moment,” he said.
“All right,” said Rodriguez.
“Is it true,” asked Brenner, “that women have sexual needs?”
“Yes,” said Rodriguez, “but in some women they are latent, and must be aroused.”
“I see,” said Brenner.
“But they are there,” said Rodriguez, “like combustible material.”
Brenner nodded.
“And once they are aroused,” said Rodriguez, “it is done to her.”
“‘Done to her’?” asked Brenner.
“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “They are then with her. She cannot unarouse them, so to speak.”
“I see,” said Brenner.
“The clearest case is the slave,” said Rodriguez. “But then they are given no choice in the matter. Their passions are aroused deliberately and uncompromisingly, even cruelly, with no concern for them, and aroused in such a manner that their emergence is profound and frequent, indeed, in such a manner that they become, in effect, the pathetic, helpless prisoners of their needs, dependent on masters for their satisfaction.”
“It is hard to understand,” said Brenner.
“I have seen them at a man’s feet, begging,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner gasped.
“Will they be satisfied?” asked Rodriguez. “It is up to the master.”
“I see,” said Brenner.
“Those are a slave girl’s strongest chains,” said Rodriguez.
“I understand,” said Brenner.
“But you must understand, too,” said Rodriguez, “that eventually the slave girl rejoices in these chains, in whose clasp she continues to remain helpless.
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“They keep her on the mark, where she wishes to be,” said Rodriguez, “even more than more prosaic bonds, such as chains, brands, identifications and such.”
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“She is a female,” said Rodriguez. “And it is only in bondage, and such relationships, that her femaleness, both by herself and others, is fully appreciated, understood,