"Wha—what, Master?"
Ben threw open the door of his bathroom.
"Draw that tub full of water and use up all the soap on yourself. Make yourself clean for to-morrow. Understand?"
Pete didn't understand anything. He was in a blissful daze. He had never seen faucets except the one in the Carder kitchen. Ben had to draw the water for him, showing him the hot and the cold; finally making him understand that he was not to get in with his clothes on, and that he was to use any and all of those fresh white towels, the like of which the boy had never seen; then his new master came out, closed the door, and laughing to himself sat down to wait and read a magazine.
There was a mighty splashing in the bathroom.
"Clean to see her. Clean to see her," Pete kept saying to himself. He was going to be able to speak to her with no one to object. He was going to work for this god who could fly down out of the sky. Rufus Carder might come to find him later and kill him, but that was no matter.
When finally the bathroom door opened and again arrayed in his disreputable clothes the dwarf appeared, Ben spoke without looking up from his magazine.
"Did you let the water out of the tub?"
"No, Master. I didn't know."
Ben got up, and Pete followed him, eager for the lesson. Ben viewed the color of the water frothing with suds.