One day Glawen noticed Kirdy turn aside in order to avoid him, and thenceforth he desisted from his efforts.
Glawen discussed Kirdy and his conduct with Scharde.
"Something almost funny is going on. Kirdy knows that if I pass the IPCC examination, I'll jump a whole rank over him at the Bureau. Kirdy's only recourse is also to take the examination. This means not only hard study but also the terrible risk of failure which in Kirdy's case is real, since he's weak in mathematics and also all the practical demonstrations."
"He'd certainly fail the psychometrics."
"That is Kirdy's dilemma. I can't guess how he'll deal with it except to pray that I fail so shamefully that I quit Bureau B and go into oenology along with Aries."
"Poor Kirdy. He's been through a lot."
"I agree: poor Kirdy. Which doesn't make him any easier to work with."
From Watertown on Andromeda 6011 IV came a letter from Wayness, written while she awaited connections with one of the Glistmar space cruisers. She wrote: "Already I'm homesick, and I miss you extremely. It's amazing how a person can learn to love and trust and depend upon another person so completely and hardly be aware of what's going on until the other person isn't there anymore. Now I know." And she finished: "I will write again from Tierens, with the latest news on the situation. I hope that by some miracle it will be good news, but I am not too hopeful. In an odd kind of way I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into the problem, if only to take my mind off my troubles."
The summer passed; Glawen's twentieth birthday came and went:
the last before his twenty-first: Suicide Day, as it was sometimes known. Glawen wavered between hope and despair.
His Status Index was still 22, which could have been worse but also could have been better.
On the following Smollen Aries brought Drusilla co-Laverty as his guest to the Clattuc House Supper, to Spanchetta's evident surprise and disapproval.
Aries pretended not to notice. Drusilla was in an ebullient mood, and ignored Spanchetta completely, which caused Spanchetta to glower even more notably.
During the meal Aries sat with magisterial dignity, speaking little except to Drusilla, and then only in a confidential undertone. He had dressed with care, in a black coat, russet trousers, a white shin with a blue sash at his waist.
Drusilla's costume was less conservative, and even extreme.
Her gown was a confection of striped black, pink and orange satin, cut low in front. A black turban with a tall black plume confined her pink-blond ringlets; black elf-points rose two inches above her ears. For sheer bravura the ensemble surpassed even Spanchetta's purple and red costume, and Spanchetta's expression, when she troubled to look toward Drusilla, conveyed total disgust.
Drusilla refused to be inhibited. She laughed loudly, gaily and often, sometimes for no apparent reason. She contributed her opinions to conversations everywhere around the table, chatting and chaffing, beguiling her new acquaintances with nods and smiles, pouts and winks.
Scharde, after watching covertly for a time, spoke to Glawen: "I admit to confusion. Isn't she one of Namour's special chums?"
"I think that's over and done with. Or perhaps it's a seasonal affair, since Drusilla still travels with the Mummers."
"She'd seem a bit past her prime. Floreste likes to keep young blood in the troupe."
"She's Floreste's assistant; she doesn't perform anymore."
"Aries looks like a cat who has just caught a very large mouse. I'm confused even further. I thought that Aries no longer cared for girls."
"So did I. It looks as if there might have been a mistake.
Drusilla is female, beyond all doubt."
"So she is." Scharde turned away.
"Well, it's none of my concern, I'm glad to say."
"Look at Aries. I think he's about to make a speech."
Aries had risen to his feet and for a moment stood smiling around the table, waiting for conversations to subside. At last he tapped his wineglass with a knife.
"Please, everyone! I ask your attention! I wish to make an announcement; be kind enough to listen. Sitting beside me you will notice--how could you have failed to notice?--a ravishing and gorgeous creature whom many of you will recognize as the honorable and distinguished Drusilla co-Laverty. She is as talented as she is charming, and for some years has helped Floreste work his miracles with the Mummers. But all things change! In response to my supplications, Drusilla has agreed to become a Clattuc. Do I make myself clear?"
Aries looked around the table as the assembly politely clapped hands.
"I will confide even more secrets to this company. Today we signed the contract and the union has been recorded by the Registrar. The deed is done!"
Aries bowed as the company called out congratulations.
Drusilla raised her arm on high, with her head tilted pertly to the side, and waved her fingers.
Scharde muttered aside to Glawen: "Look at Spanchetta. She can't decide whether or not to have a heart attack."
Aries spoke on.
"Needless to say, I am as amazed as you all must be by my good luck. We are leaving at once on a romantic tour which will take us far and wide, to places of myth and mystery! But return we shall, I promise you! In all the Gaean Reach no place compares with Araminta Station!"
Aries seated himself and for several minutes was busy responding to toasts and questions.
"So they're off to places of myth and mystery," mused Scharde.
"I wonder where Aries found the money. Certainly not from Spanchetta."
"Maybe Drusilla has come int "Not on what Floreste pays Orpheum fund. Drusilla is luck;
and whatever extra she can conn "Perhaps she operates some sc "Let us hope that it is a busin assistance."
On the following day Aries an ian Lines' luxury cruise ship Mi told Glawen: "The puzzle is clan and the problem of Aries' weali wealth whatever and Drusilla we to take passage to 'places of my making a routine trip, arranging thing she does every year. Fk Mummer personnel; both Aries therefore are minimal and as for are bound for such places as Sou and Tassadero: worlds on Flores for the most pan."
"I wonder where they plan to "Do you think Spanchetta will v "Not effusively."
Glawen went to look out the myself. To Earth, by preference "Wait till after your next birtt Glawen gave his head a dour anywhere I like, especially if I d< "Don't be so gloomy. You're induce old Dorny to drink hims won't retire and he won't make i "I can't worry about such thin out ofClattuc House, so be it. S and mystery like Aries, or even out for a sail. Maybe to Thurb along? We can camp on the beac "No, thank you. Thurben Is plenty of water; you'll find not i in the lagoon."
"I think I'll go," said Glawen.
Glawen loaded supplies aboard the sloop, filled the water tanks, recharged the power unit, then, without ceremony, cast off the mooring lines and departed the Clattuc dock.
Under power he steered down the Wan River to the river mouth, then up and over the incoming swells where they crossed the bar, and out upon the face of the ocean. A quarter mile offshore he raised the sails and on the port tack sailed due east: a course which eventually would bring him to the steaming west coast of Ecce.
Glawen put the automatic pilot to work, and sat back to enjoy the gurgle of the wake, the wide blue sky, the surge of the boat over the long low swells.
The Araminta shore became a purple-gray mark across the horizon and soon disappeared. The wind shifted; Glawen altered course to north of east--as close to the wind as was convenient.
The day passed, with nothing to be seen but lazy blue ocean, sky and an occasional wandering seabird.
