For an individual, however, a single slave girl, or two or three such, can constitute a small investment and pleasant hobby. If you sell a girl for more than you bought her for, in a relatively stable economy, she will have cost you little more than the food you have given her. With an initial investment, that way, one can manage, serially, buying and selling, to have a succession of lovely female slaves, at little or no cost beyond their food. You might, of course, assuming you are keeping one at a time, find one, eventually, perhaps the seventeenth or twentieth, that you are fond of. You may then, if you wish, keep her. (If you need money, of course, you will presumably sell her. When your fortunes improve you could then buy another, or perhaps she again, if convenient. Another way to make money on her, of course, would be to rent her. This way you retain legal ownership. (The rentee has complete slave rights, of course, including the application of discipline and body use. If he should, however, mutilate or slay the slave, compensation must be paid to the owner. Compensation is figured according to a flexible scale, applied by judges; if the slave is slain or rendered useless, as in being hamstrung, the owner is entitled to his original purchase price plus ten percent. Hamstrung slaves are usually disposed of; sometimes, nude, they are used for begging.) The difficulty with renting is that one makes only a bit of money at a time, over a long period of time. If money is needed, it is doubtless preferable to sell the girl outright. When your fortunes improve, as mentioned, you could always buy another, or, if convenient, buy her back again. (Does she, in the market, chained to the wall with the other girls, seeing you, beg you to purchase her again, promising to serve you even better this time, more abjectly, more imaginatively, more sensuously? You may then either buy her again or not. It is up to you. Perhaps there is another wench, chained at the wall, who looks at you, lips parted, eyes pleading, as a slave girl, who might be of even more interest. Perhaps you let them compete, each trying to please you more? Perhaps you buy both and bring them home, playing them off, one against the other. Each, then, tries to be your favorite. A most pleasant situation for a male! (Your wife, of course, plays both roles, being catty about the other, trying to serve you best, etc. Let her act the dual role of two slave girls, competing for the attentions of their master. If she does not please you best, the other girl will, of course. She will then be the favorite. Not only, in such a case, would the wife, at least temporarily, have been bested as a female, but she would then be, in many respects, at the ungentle mercies of the other girl. The most troublesome and menial of slave tasks would then, doubtless, fall to her. “Let Linda do it, Master.” “Very well.” “Please, Master!” “Be silent, Slave.” “Yes, Master.” One girl looks with superiority at the other, the ordered slave. There is hatred between them. The master is master. He enjoys the attentions of his two women.)