A 'Routine' Enslavement
by Falcon


If you enjoy this story or have comments please write author at 
dondaverse at yahoo dot com.  Your feedback will be much appreciated.


Chapter 3.   The Slaver's Career


Here I will lay out how I, William Steelforth, progressed from the 
unqualified slavery enthusiast I was in high school to the qualified slavery 
advocate I had become as managing partner of the agency which bore 
my name.

After high school, the next opportunity to have an animated exchange 
about my ideas with a teacher came in a discussion with Professor 
Petersen, my philosophy teacher, in my sophomore year of college.  
Unlike my high school civics teacher, he was actually a proponent of 
slavery.  But the kind of slavery I had heard him advocate in the 
classroom was rather harsh and indiscriminate.  I approached him one 
day in his office.

"You wanted to see me about something, Bill?"

"Yes sir.  I was glad to hear you speak favorably about our slavery laws, 
but I wondered if you had considered the injustices that are probably 
going on?"  I watched to see his reaction.  He seemed curious but 
cautious.

"Bill, there are always going to be some minor injustices with any new 
law.  The important thing is we are no longer coddling debtors and felons.  
There is a fundamental kind of justice in punishing the felon by making 
him labor for others, instead of others (taxpayers) being made to labor to 
support him (in prison).  There is also a kind of rough justice in not letting 
the insolvent debtor off the hook through bankruptcy laws, but rather 
make her provide her labor or her sexual services to the public, if she has 
no other way to make her creditor whole." 

"But Professor, why could we not refine our new law to insure that every 
enslavement would be a just enslavement?"

"What is your definition of a just enslavement, Bill?"

"For a debt enslavement to be just," I said, "there would have to be 
proven failure, fraud or wrongdoing, and not simply a run of bad luck that 
could happen to anyone.  The law should bear equally on all without 
regard to race, gender, religion, or national origin.  There would need to 
be careful fact checking by the Court so that no false claim against a 
debtor could succeed.  There would also have to be some limits on the 
nature of the enslavement imposed by the Court so as to provide 
proportionality between the fault of the debtor and the duration and 
intensity of the punishment to be imposed!"

"Bill, you are making a mistake in thinking that the primary purpose of 
debt enslavement is to punish.  To be sure the debtor will experience it as 
extremely punitive, but that is incidental.  The real purpose is to force the 
debtor to make the creditor whole even if extreme measures are needed 
to realize that goal.  Whether the debtor simply had a run of bad luck, or 
was guilty of some fault makes little or no difference.  Either way we want 
to make his or her creditor whole!"

"But sir," I replied, "the 'Community Labor and Debtor Restitution Act' 
allows the creditor to take possession of the debtor's person for the 
duration of the indenture and to direct him or her in such labors as he 
might see fit.  Few if any restrictions are placed on the nature of the labor 
that could be required under these indentures!"

"And your point is?"  he glared at me.

"What about forced prostitution?  Is that just?"  I had enjoyed that service 
myself on several occasions but was beginning to have some doubts 
about the ethics of it.

"Bill, in many cases that would be the only valuable service a young 
person with no special training or work experience could provide that 
would have any realistic possibility of discharging his or her debt.  
Remember restitution is the goal, not punishment.  I don't think most 
people would be particularly troubled if a young person were forced to 
pay off his or her debt by providing sexual services to the public.  Keep in 
mind that society today has developed pretty relaxed attitudes about sex 
and prostitution.  It doesn't carry the stigma it once did."

"I take your point Professor.  Perhaps we can continue another time.  I will 
be late to my next class if I don't leave now."  I took my leave.

I studied the various systems of slavery throughout history, particularly 
the Roman system and the system in the American south prior to our Civil 
War.  I much preferred the Roman system as it was not racially based, 
and any person, citizen or not, and regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, or 
national origin could be enslaved for just cause.  I had many discussions 
about all this with my college philosophy professor.  With his help I began 
to formulate my ideas for what would constitute a decent system:

Despite the fact that many debts were being paid off and the public was 
enjoying new sexual possibilities, there were business interests that were 
not satisfied with this system of limited indentures.  

One day my philosophy professor let met know about an upcoming 
symposium, called "Slavery for Today and Tomorrow", to be held at the 
university with panel discussions in which both academic types and 
business leaders would hold forth on how our present system of 
indentured servitude might be improved.

On the day of the event I found myself in a gathering of people who were 
in a very good mood.  I ran into George, a friend I knew from biology 
class.  He explained to me why everyone was in such a good mood.  It 
seemed that the corporate sponsors of this gathering had wanted 
everyone to be happy and relaxed for the panel discussions.  So they had 
decided that each attendee should be provided with an attractive 
prostitute to see to his or her sexual needs during the conference.

On checking in each person was given a ticket for an assigned seat in 
each of the forums, a 'privacy blanket', and a lockable steel collar with a 
number on it matching the assigned seat number.   As the attractive 
young lady at the checkout counter handed George and I our blankets 
and collars she explained how the system worked.

"All you do, gentlemen, is wander the hallways here where you will see 
hundreds of indentured prostitutes on display, each one naked, 
handcuffed and attached by a chain to a wall stanchion.  When you find 
one you fancy, lock the collar around her neck, marking her as your 
'property' for the duration of the symposium.  Then go to your first forum.  

"Within about ten minutes one of our guards will have found the neck 
locked girl with your seat number on her collar, and will bring her, still 
handcuffed to you.  How you choose to use her for your sexual pleasure 
will be entirely up to you.  Most of our past attendees have chosen to 
receive fellatio, with the girl kneeling under the privacy afforded by the 
blanket.  But if you wish to engage in sex more openly, that will be your 
choice.  Or, if you prefer, we do have private rooms available for nominal 
rent.  If you so request, the guard who brings your girl will give you a 
room key and charge your account."

"But what if she won't do what we ask, or even runs away?" George 
wanted to know.

"Don't worry about that!  Each of these girls has had at least 6 months of 
rigorous obedience training!  And she knows only too well what the 
consequences would be should she displease one of our conference 
attendees!"  The checkout lady said this with a sly grin.  

As George and I walked through the corridors there were, as the lady had 
said, hundreds of indentured and chained prostitutes, both male and 
female.  At first we passed only males, and we noted some of the female 
conference attendees were looking them over rather closely.  One lady 
was weighing, in the palm of her hand, the scrotum and balls of a guy 
with a washboard stomach and very defined musculature.  A little further 
on we saw a long row of female prostitutes.

Just then I saw a chained and very slender body, but couldn't quite see 
the face yet.  When the girl turned I recognized Julie, a girl who had been 
in my English Literature class last year.  She was drop dead good 
looking, but always had her nose in the air.  She seemed to think she was 
above everybody else.  I never dreamed I would ever see her naked.  
Maybe I could have some fun with her now.

"Julie!  Do you remember me?  I was the guy from English Lit class last 
year you wouldn't go out with.  Apparently your circumstances are quite 
different now!  I would like to hear how you wound up chained to this 
wall!"  She could not meet my gaze.

"I lost my job as a waitress toward the end of last year.  I missed some 
payments on my student loan.  When the bank found out I had no income 
they demanded payment in full of my entire loan.  I could not pay it, so 
they indentured me for 4 years for my debt!"

She was still looking down and not meeting my gaze.  I wanted to study 
her face.

"Look at me Julie!"  She finally met my gaze and, as she did so, I reached 
out with my right hand and cupped her vulva, all the while studying her 
face.  I saw a tear form and start to trickle down her face, even as my 
fingers were exploring her pubic hair.

"I think that now that you are indentured, you might serve me well as a 
cock sucker!"   As I said this I proceeded to lock my collar upon her neck.  
Her face now turned red with humiliation.  My friend George was playing 
with the breasts of a girl a bit further on and soon had his collar locked on 
her neck.  We then proceeded to our first forum.

The first was a panel on the legal aspects of servitude, how to make 
indentures 'appeal proof' and how to make sure you have good title to a 
person whose indenture you buy at auction.  The leaders of this panel 
were a professor of commercial law and a couple of practicing attorneys.  
We had not been listening to this panel for more than ten minutes when a 
guard brought our prostitutes to us.  We both draped blankets over our 
laps and bid the girls go down on their knees and fellate us.  It was most 
deliciously pleasant to have these sensations to enjoy even as we 
listened with interest to the panel.  We would make the girls slow down or 
stop whenever there was danger of a premature climax.  We wanted to 
make this pleasure last all day if possible!

Of course we took our girls and our blankets with us to the next panel 
discussion with the convenient leashes attached to their collars.  This 
panel was led by CEOs of pharmaceutical and plastics companies.  Their 
concern was how to protect proprietary processes, trade secrets and the 
investment they make when they put a new hire through an extensive 
technical training program.  They had always had the problem of losing 
the training investment whenever a new employee would quit after a short 
time.  Worse than that was the problem of that employee going to work 
for their competitor and taking with them their knowledge of trade secrets.  
The new indenture system was giving them a fairly workable solution to 
the training investment problem.  But it was no answer to the trade secret 
problem.  I nearly shot my load into Julie's mouth during this discussion, 
but managed to hold off.  Julie did get a few drops of my pre cum on her 
tongue.  George did have his climax.

Another panel was led by Certified Public Accountants.  They bemoaned 
the fact that young staff accountants frequently would come on board for 
a few years, acquire much confidential knowledge of the finances of the 
firm's clients, then leave the firm, taking all that confidential information 
with them and peddling it to the client's competitors.  Now Julie was very 
gently massaging my scrotum and testicles with the tip of her tongue.  It 
was delicious.

The most interesting panel of the day was about the growing prostitution 
industry, and was led by CEOs of firms in those enterprises.  Their 
complaint was that young prostitutes, after working there for a time, would 
be in a position to betray the business and its clients by selling to 
newspapers the names of the firm's clients.  

Equally serious was the possibility that they might reveal details 
concerning the sexual peccadillos of a particular client, much to the 
latter's embarrassment!  As I heard this I knew I wanted even more 
control over Julie.  I squeezed Julie's nostrils closed with one hand while I 
forced my penis to the very back of her throat, triggering her gag reflex.  
She soon found that she could only breathe when I retracted my penis 
slightly.  I found it very pleasant to control her breathing in this way!

What the businessmen in all three of the foregoing industries really 
wanted were employees they could train and keep as captive labor for the 
employee's entire life!  They wanted 'employees' who would never be free 
to leave their employment!  They wanted to, in effect, 'own' their 
employees!  With these thoughts in my mind, I could hold back no longer.  
I shot a plentiful load of semen into Julie's mouth.  I forbid her to swallow 
it quickly, but insisted instead that she swirl it around her mouth and 
tongue and fully experience the taste. The speaker went on about the 
need to either replace or supplement the system of limited indentures with 
a system of full chattel slavery.  At the conclusion of the prostitution 
panel, the day's formal activities were over and the same guard who had 
brought Julie earlier came to take her away.  He promised I could have 
her again the next day.

The second day of the symposium was devoted entirely to the question 
"How Do We Achieve Our Objectives?"

As I entered the auditorium a few minutes late, pulling Julie by her leash, 
and found my seat, a rather tall distinguished looking man was holding 
forth at the podium.  I later learned his name was Robert Dexter of Dexter 
Pharmaceuticals.

"I think we all know what kind of system would best address the concerns 
expressed in our panels yesterday." Mr. Dexter fiddled with his notes. 
"But to achieve such a system we must have public support and getting 
that may depend on what name we give to our system.  I propose that we 
not call it 'chattel slavery', as some have suggested, as that sounds too 
harsh and conjures up images of the past where masters whipped slaves 
and broke up families by selling members one at a time.  Surely, 
gentlemen, we can achieve our goals without resorting to that sort of 
thing!

There was a loud round of applause and cries of 'Here, here!'   I had Julie 
sitting on my lap this time, the better to explore her nakedness!  When 
things got quiet again, Mr. Dexter continued.

"We have had, for a year now, a committee working on this problem of 
how to sell our system.  What they have come up with is a concept called 
"Kinder and Gentler Slavery".   We may even be able to sell this as less 
harsh than the present system of indentures, even while we are making 
the slavery permanent!  The trick would be to call attention to the human 
costs of family disruption under the present system, and the effects on a 
spouse and children when the primary breadwinner must serve for many 
years without pay! "   I began with Julie by gently caressing her long 
slender legs.

"We slave owners propose to contract with the public" Mr. Dexter 
continued "to provide humane conditions for our slaves, including a 
commitment not to whip or break up families, a commitment to provide 
good medical care for the slave and his immediate family, and a decent 
retirement for each slave.  You all received a leaflet outlining the key 
points of the new proposed system

There was an undercurrent of murmuring at this.  My fingers were now 
busy in Julie's crotch, testing the resiliency of her pubic hairs, inserting 
my index finger in her vagina, while using my thumb to gently stimulate 
her clitoris.  I was beginning to get a sexual response from Julie, which 
she would very much like to have suppressed.  Finally a woman rose to 
her feet and asked for the floor.  I knew her as manager of a minor chain 
of bordellos.  The presiding officer gave her the floor.

"What I want to know is how are we in small business possibly going to 
be able to provide these idealistic benefits?'  She took her seat.

"Basically costs are covered by having your industry association offer 
group insurance.  It is all explained in the leaflet you all received as you 
came in."

After some further discussion of the pros and cons, a resolution was 
passed giving the sense of the symposium in favor of the new proposal.  
The second day was nearly over. and the guard came again to collect 
Julie.


I was so excited about this new system of slavery that we had all agreed 
to promote to the public that I just had to put my hard dick into something 
soft and feminine.  Julie was available and fortunately had nothing to say 
about it.  Her vagina was mine to enjoy if I wished to do so.  When the 
guard came to collect her I asked instead for a private room.  There I 
slipped my penis inside Julie and reveled in her subservience!

In the weeks that followed, the leaders of the pro slavery movement 
appeared on various TV interview shows to get the widest possible 
exposure of the new plan.  

At the end of the day, the public bought the new idea.

By the time I got out of college the Congress had passed the "Criminal 
Punishment and Debtor Satisfaction Act" bringing back the institution of 
chattel slavery and providing that a Court might enslave a person either 
as punishment for crime or in satisfaction of a debt owed to a plaintiff 
creditor.  Criminals, once enslaved, would become, in the first instance 
the property of the government, later to be sold at public auction to the 
highest bidder.  Debtors, once enslaved, would become, in the first 
instance, the property of the plaintiff creditor to use in any manner he 
might think appropriate, and ultimately could be sold at public auction 
should the creditor so choose.

Although Capitallia had legalized total slavery, the public seldom saw 
naked slaves being paraded through the streets, as was often the case in 
earlier slave owning societies.  This was because the new nation had 
carried forward most of the ideas regarding public nudity, exposure of 
children to nudity and 'lewd public acts' held by advanced societies for 
centuries. 

Paradoxically, however, it was believed that forced nudity might be an 
effective form of shame punishment to inflict on slaves and criminals, 
provided that such displays took place in semi public settings where only 
adults who had chosen to view such spectacles need observe.

With all of these developments I could see the direction my career should 
take. There would be a need for bright and aggressive people to work as 
'slavers agents'.  After working a few years for another firm, I had the 
financial ability to start my own agency.

During these early years I became aware that it wasn't just slavery that 
made people unequal in our society.  The delicious inequality that I so 
enjoyed was also a feature of the class system with its distinctions 
between citizens and non-citizens. 

There was some upward and downward mobility between classes.  A 
person born as a non-citizen might, with considerable diligence, earn his 
or her way up to being a citizen.  Similarly, one born as a citizen might, 
with considerable neglect of responsibilities, fall to the status of non-
citizen.

For all this mobility the class system nevertheless offered special 
privileges and pleasures to citizens.  For example, during the early years 
when I was establishing my agency I had to get to the office early one day 
for a meeting with a potential financial backer.

As usual I had taken the maglev train from my suburban home to the city, 
there to catch a personal transportation (PT) capsule to my office.  The 
train ride had been relaxing and had given me a chance to catch up on 
some reading.  

As I stepped off the maglev to the platform I looked to where the PT 
capsules queued.  There had been only one remaining.  I had rushed to it 
and noted that a rather attractive young woman was going to beat me.   It 
was plain that she was not even a citizen by the conspicuous non-Cit 
identification bracelet around her slender wrist.  No citizen would be 
required to wear such a bracelet.  

"Citizen's privilege!" I shouted at her, but she did not yield to me as she 
was required to do by law.

Her failure to defer to me had caused my blood pressure to rise, the 
muscles of my neck to stand out and my shoulders to tense up.  It had 
been more than just irritating
since I believed such rudeness would cause me to be late to my meeting.  
I pointed my cell phone at her bracelet just before she entered the 
capsule and touched the "Identify" icon on the screen.  Immediately I had 
her name, photo and federal ID number on my display.   I then touched 
the "Save" icon.  This sent her key access data to my personal computer 
at the office.  I could later use that data, at my leisure, to pull up any and 
all information about her that might be in publicly accessible government 
files.  This might help me decide whether or not to prefer charges.

I saw her speed away in my PT capsule and steeled myself for a wait of 
possibly up to fifteen minutes before more PT's would be available.

In spite of reaching my office late, my meeting with the backer was 
successful.  After the meeting I decided to look up information about the 
non-cit who had taken 'my' PT this morning.  Failure of a non-cit to yield 
to a citizen was a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail.  I was 
amazed at the wealth of publicly available information I could pull up 
about her with just that federal ID number.  Nothing as private as financial 
or medical records, of course, since she did have some privacy rights 
even as a non- citizen.  I could, however, learn her credit history, her 
criminal record (if any), her educational background and her current 
employment (if any).  And there were hundreds of photos of her taken by 
public surveillance cameras including photos of her in a bikini at the 
beach.

I decided that I would press charges, at least for now.  She would be 
entitled to an administrative hearing of course.  I would have to present 
some evidence to back up my complaint.  I thought the video clip I had 
captured on my cell phone camera would be sufficient to get her 
convicted.  But what I was really hoping for was that she would come to 
my office to contritely apologize and beg me to drop the charges.  
Perhaps she could express her contrition in a sexual way. That would be 
sweet.

                         ********************************************************


Our agency has, since its inception, been in the business of scouting out 
persons who were insolvent and could therefore be enslaved and who 
also had some talent or youth or beauty to make it all worth the trouble.  

A word is in order here about how the slaving business developed in 
Capitallia since the formation of our new nation.  There were essentially 
two separate aspects of the trade.  What might be called the 
'procurement side' encompassed firms like my own.  What was often 
called the 'merchandising side' included firms that were primarily engaged 
in financing the acquisition of slaves, slave obedience training, slave 
physical conditioning and maintenance, and of course marketing of the 
slaves.  Firms of this sort were generally my clients.  Their business was 
capital intensive since they had to lay out vast sums of money to 
purchase all the debts of each of the many debtors they wished to 
acquire, plus the added costs of the legal proceedings, and the costs of 
training and marketing the 'products'.  Firms of this sort tended to be 
centralized in particular cities where they maintained their financial, 
training, warehousing and marketing operations.

Firms on the 'procurement side', like my own, tended to be geographically 
dispersed.  What we always had to sell were our professional services 
and we tended to be labor intensive rather than capital intensive as were 
our clients.  Merchandising slavers discovered early on that setting up 
their own company offices in far flung locations with their own salaried 
employees created a situation where it was difficult to control such 
employees and motivate them to achieve the procurement results 
desired.  They found it more expedient to hire professional firms such as 
my own to do the field work and pay through commissions for actual 
results. 

Our service also has included, besides scouting, hiring a local attorney in 
the jurisdiction where each target debtor lives, and working with that 
attorney to achieve a successful enslavement, then delivering the 
'merchandise' to our client.  Our clients have tended to be predominantly 
nationwide or international corporations.  We have done some work for 
wealthy individuals as well.  For the last five years our largest single client 
has been a nationwide prostitution service.

Throughout the years I have always insisted we maintain the highest 
ethical standards. I believe I know right from wrong when it comes to who 
should be enslaved and who should not be.  My relationship with my 
clients has always allowed me to exercise discretion in such matters.

During the early years of my practice enslavements were generally 
straightforward and not too difficult to achieve.  All my team had to show 
was that the debtor owed over $10,000, was not able to pay it off within 
three years and that we were the sole creditor.  But gradually the courts 
expanded the rights of defendants in such proceedings.  It was held that a 
defendant might present a defense that he or she would be worth more to 
the creditor free than enslaved.  The plaintiff would then have to prove the 
contrary.  

Then the courts began to develop a doctrine that defendants had a right 
to play to the sympathies of jurors by presenting highly personal 
information.  They could, for example, discuss their fear of enslavement 
and their insecurities or anxieties in general in court as they wished. 
Finally there was a case where the male defendant asked the judge if he 
might present to the jury testimony of his masturbatory habits and his fear 
that, if enslaved, he might be denied masturbation.  The judge saw it 
otherwise, the jury enslaved the man, but the appellate court nullified his 
enslavement.  

In the case of Madison v. Bielman the appellate court held that defendant 
had been prevented from exercising all of his rights to a creative defense 
and denied the fullest 

possible opportunity to try to win the sympathies of jurors.  Double 
jeopardy attached, so there could not be a new trial and the man was set 
free.

Another aspect of the Bielman ruling also worked to the advantage of 
defendants who planned to present themselves naked at trial.  That was a 
requirement that prospective jurors who might object to hearing highly 
personal testimony from or about the defendant must be excused from 
serving.  The court held that no juror could be forced to hear about 
masturbatory practices if that went against the juror's own beliefs.  
Defense attorneys were only too happy to challenge such jurors for 
cause.  The end result was that the empanelled jury was likely to be far 
more sympathetic to the defendant than would otherwise have been the 
case.

These legal developments had made my job quite a bit more difficult.  We 
had to work harder, but we were still successful in enslaving most of the 
people we went after.

As my practice grew I saw the need to bring in a partner.   At first I took 
on a male partner.  My workload eased up considerably.  One day I was 
reviewing some of his cases and discovered that he had enslaved a 
young woman apparently for no other reason than his own desire to fuck 
her!  What was particularly disturbing was that he had apparently created 
fictitious debts for her in order to force her into insolvency.  Neither the 
court nor the defense counsel had caught this.  I could see that there was 
a woeful lack of procedural safeguards in this new debtor enslavement 
industry!  Of course I fired this partner.  I did not approve of his conduct 
on both practical and ethical grounds.

I found myself looking for another partner to replace the fired one.  Not 
being gay or bisexual, I did not enjoy the male enslavements as much as 
the female ones.  The thought naturally occurred to me that if I had a 
female partner she could handle the male enslavements and leave me 
free to spend all of my time on female enslavements and indentures.

I pursued my contacts within the industry and eventually came up with a 
promising candidate.  I called her in for an interview.

"Miss Johnson, perhaps we could begin by your telling me of how you 
became interested in slavery and why you chose this as your 
profession?"

"Well Bill, if I may call you Bill, I suppose I developed an interest as a little 
girl. The idea that some people would have the right to own and control 
other people always intrigued me!   It was only fitting, after all, that people 
of inferior ability, mentality or moral status should serve their betters!"  
This would make for a just world, assuming, of course, that the right sort 
of people were enslaved and that the right sort of people became their 
masters!"

"Miss Johnson, I was hoping you would say just that.  It is very important 
to me also that only a certain sort of person be enslaved, and that all 
enslavements be legally just."  I described to her the experience I had 
with the male partner and why I had to fire him.

"I understand Bill.  That is the way I feel also."

"Part of my purpose in taking on a partner," I said, "particularly a female 
partner, is to be relieved of the need to do male enslavements myself.  So 
I would want a heterosexual female as my partner.  The law allows us to 
do a "Creditor's Examination" of any debtor once we have made a 
satisfactory prima facie case and the debtor has been bound over for trial.  
This exam typically includes not only the debtor's financial assets and 
liabilities, but also the debtor's person.  Our clients nearly always want us 
to do this so that they have early information as to the debtor's potential 
value on the auction block.  So we do a complete physical, including 
sexual response testing."  

"If we give our client a completely favorable report on the debtor's body," I 
continued, "accompanied by photographs, and the debtor is reported to 
the client as responding well to sexual stimulation, then the client will 
typically give us carte blanche to pursue the case.  This allows us to hire 
private investigators if needed, or to hire jury consultants if indicated.  If 
the debtor's body is not so desirable, or he or she has shown poor 
response to sexual stimulation, the client may give us a very limited 
budget."

"Miss Johnson, if you come on board with us, I would want you to 
concentrate almost entirely on the male enslavements and the male 
Creditor's Exams, and to enjoy doing so!  If I never have to look at a penis 
again or weigh a man's balls in my hand, it will be too soon!  So I need 
some reassurance from you that you are heterosexual and that you will 
enjoy the work I have in mind for you.  That will allow me to concentrate 
on my first love, which is enslaving females who deserve this fate!"


"I am heterosexual Bill, and you will find me quite enthusiastic about my 
work!"  I am looking forward to those exams!"

And so the firm continued to grow and prosper up to the time of our 
celebration.