waiting area, and our hands were braceleted behind our backs. We came to the block one by one, after being freed, one at a time, from the chain and bracelets. Covered with a sheet we are conducted to the surface of the block.” She flung the sheet over her head and body and crept carefully to the surface of the bed, on which she stood, upright. “Various details, then, pertinent to ourselves, and our contracts, are brought to the attention of the crowd. After this the sheet is lowered to reveal our head and face, the nature of our hair and such. At this point bidding begins. Then, little by little, cunningly, as the bids continue, the sheet is rearranged. I assure you we do our best to keep it about us. First our ankles and calves are revealed, and then our shoulders. Then the sheet is raised so that our legs are well revealed. Following this it is lowered to our hips. Then it is removed from us altogether, and cast aside, to be used by the next girl.” She then illustrated this matter, taking her time in doing so, for example, folding, and rearranging the sheet, first freeing her head and hair of it, then lifting it to reveal her calves and ankles, and so on. She even held herself motionless at times, as doubtless she had been commanded to do, that bidders might not be rushed in their assessments. Too, she behaved as though she had been turned about, doubtless that the diverse perspectives of her might adequately displayed. To be sure, she was, beneath the sheet, silked, not nude as doubtless would have been the case upon the block. On the other hand, Brenner, as she had anticipated, had little difficulty in grasping the general idea of matters. “It is at this point,” she continued, having cast the sheet aside, “that one of the auctioneer’s helpers produces a whip. The mere sound of this, when it is snapped, encourages in us a desperate desire to do whatever is required of us. We have been coached, and have been well rehearsed, of course. We know the various movements, the postures, the attitudes, and such, required of us, and the commands appropriate to their elicitation.”
“Aii,” said Brenner, softly.
“Yes,” she said, “such things, such movements!”
“Stop!” cried Brenner. “No! No! Do not stop!”
“Like this,” she said, “and this!”
“It is like a sale of slaves!” said Brenner.
“I am sure the sales of slaves are quite different,” she said, “but I think it is true that these movements and attitudes, even though we are free women, have been carefully designed, with the object in view that a potential bidder will have an excellent idea as to the value of the contract on which he might bid.”
“I do not doubt it,” said Brenner.
How marvelous were her calves and ankles. How they flashed, and turned, and moved! How marvelous were the archings and extensions of her body, how beautiful were those numerous excitements, the softnesses of her and the movements of her, the flexing of a knee, the motion of a wrist, the pointing of a foot, rounding a calf, the turning of a hip, the drawing in of her belly, the very breathing of her, its effects so subtly, yet so beautifully, so unmistakably evident in her figure; how marvelous even the upsweeping of her hair, so small a thing, and that display of curves in the bent-back bow of her body, that attendant, lovely lifting of the line of her breasts! “And then,” she said, “we were surprised! We were merely told to “be desirable.” This had not been rehearsed! The whip snapped!”
“What did you do?” asked Brenner.
“We must improvise,” she said. “We had not expected this. We were confused. The whip snapped again!”
“What did you do?”
“We must draw upon our most secret and deepest thoughts,” she said, “upon the deepest secrets of our most secret belly!”
“What did you do?” asked Brenner.
“Such things!” she said.
Brenner looked upon her, stunned. Never had he dreamed a woman could be such. Categorically it denied all he had been taught. This was no “same,” no banal, meaningless “identical”! This was something different, something utterly different, from a man. Something marvelous and wonderful in its own right, in its own nature, something not the same as a man, but complementary to a man, something special, something unique, something more precious and desirable to a man than anything else, something priceless, a treasure, a living jewel, the sort