"Floreste favored Mirlview House for the Mummers."
"Definitely and distinctly inferior," declared the adviser.
"The emphasis is upon achieving tolerable results with minimal effort. It is the resort of the Sanart Scientists when they visit the city; need I say more?"
"The Mirlview was indeed somewhat severe!" mused Kirdy.
"Still,
those were wonderful times! In those days I had so much to learn, and so much yet to undergo." His voice dwindled away.
"Quite so," said the adviser.
"I cannot in good conscience recommend the Mirlview. Persons of judgment and high connection inevitably select the Rolinda. True, it is expensive, but what of that? If disbursing a dink et or two causes a person pain, he should best stay home, where his frugalities will not offend members of the travel industry.
Are you in agreement?"
"Of course," said Glawen.
"I am a Clattuc and Kirdy is a Wook. For us the best is none too good; we use both jam and butter on our bread."
"Indeed."
"Absolutely. How do we arrive at the Rolinda? Must we walk through the heat?"
"Of course not. The hotel will place a luxury vehicle, with a cooled interior and a selection of ales and beers, at your service."
"As a compliment to their guests?"
The adviser raised his eyebrows.
"My dear sir!"
"There is a charge, then."
"A substantial charge, I assure you. There is an omnibus. It is used by the overly thrifty, the penurious, Sanart Scientists and vagrants. It is fast, convenient and cheap, but has no other advantages. If, like myself, you are cursed with a streak of wayward insouciance, you might try the omnibus, just for a lark. It may be boarded directly in front of the terminal."
"It will serve us well enough. One more question: which are the principal tourist agencies?"
"I would unhesitatingly suggest, as the most prestigious, the Phlodoric Agency and Bucyrus Tours. You will find both offices along the Parade at the Hotel Rolinda, for your easy convenience."
"And persons traveling off-world would normally use these agencies?"
"That is correct, sir."
Glawen and Kirdy boarded the omnibus and were conveyed to the Hotel Rolinda: a complex intermesh of four low near-flat domes arranged to leave a space eighty yards in diameter at the center. In this space grew a garden which was shaded from the most ardent Blaiselight by a high shell of gray glass. To right and left rose a pair of slender gray glass towers, housing accommodations for the guests.
The omnibus approached the hotel, halted under a gray-glass portiere; Glawen and Kirdy alighted into cool wafts of chilled air. They passed through a curtain of scented mist into a dim space of such large dimension that it could not immediately be apprehended. A white ceiling, low at the side walls, curved gently to a height of thirty feet at the center. The business desk ranged along the wall to one side;
to the other a dining area flanked the jungle garden.
Glawen and Kirdy crossed to the desk, where they were assigned rooms on the nineteenth level of the north tower.
The rooms, so they discovered, were furnished comfortably in a style which was bland and neutral but in any case rendered unnoticeable by the view through the gray-glass walls.
Glawen stood looking out across the landscape, so different from any he had known before. Hundreds of low white domes were strewn irregularly and seemingly at random over the ground out to the edge of his vision, each surrounded by masses of dark foliage. To the south, then away to right and left, spread the placid Mirling, showing a silken blue surface to the Blaiselight. An intriguing and unusual panorama, thought Glawen, if perhaps somewhat over stark over bright and too insistently blue and white.
Glawen turned away from the view. In a bathroom of monolithic gray-blue glass, illuminated by some mysterious means from within its own substance, Glawen bathed: first in a gush of scented foam, then a rinse of scented water.
Returning to the bedroom he discovered that loose white garments in the mode of Poinciana had been laid out for his use. He dressed, then went out into the hall and knocked on Kirdy's door.
There was no immediate response. Glawen was on the point of turning away when the door swung open. Kirdy looked out, sandy hair tousled, his large ruddy face set in surly lines.
"Why all the disturbance?" He took note of Glawen's garments and stared in suspicion.
"Where are you going?"
"Down to the lobby. I want to ask some questions. Join me when you are ready, and we'll have lunch."
Kirdy made a peevish face.
"You should have warned me that you were going out. I planned to eat in my room."
"Eat wherever you like. Come down when you're ready. If you don't see me, sit down and wait; I won't be leaving the hotel. I don't think."
"Oh, devil take all! Wait for me, then. I'll be fifteen minutes or so. Where did you find the clothes?"
"They were laid out while I was bathing. But I'm not waiting. I have work to do. If you don't see me, sit down and watch the ladies walk back and forth."
