At noon Glawen sat at a table to the side of the terrace, pretending to read a book but in fact waiting for Wayness to appear. The minutes passed by, but no Wayness. He became edgy. Either his imagination was playing him tricks or she was purposely avoiding him. It was illogical; why should it be? Caprice? Second thoughts in regard to Julian Bohost?
Impossible to guess what might be going on in her mind ... Here she came now, with two of her friends. Glawen rose to his feet but she appeared not to see him and went to a table across ;
the terrace. As she sat down, she turned a quick side glance in his | direction and gave him a quick little flicker of the fingers. She had ;
seen him after all!
In a dark mood Glawen crouched over his book, while watching ;
her through his eyelashes. Something was different;
something was changed. What could it be? Her hair? The same loose dark curls. Her face? Fascination, the stuff of magic: as before. Her clothes---ah!:
Instead of the knee-length dark skirts and jackets which she had s brought from Earth, she wore pale blue Araminta-style trousers, tight ,| at the hips, loose under the knees and gathered at the ankles, with a | short-sleeved gray-tan shirt open at the neck: a costume which admirably showed off her slim figure. ;
Glawen became resolute. If she would not join him at his table, he if would go sit with her ... On the other hand, that might be exactly I the wrong procedure. What would his father do in like circumstances? Glawen pictured Scharde's face, grim and whimsical all at once.
Scharde, he decided, would simply laugh and read his book and let Wayness straighten things out for herself.
Kirdy Wook dropped into the chair opposite him.
"I'm told that you want to become a Bold Lion."
Glawen gave his head a slow shake.
"Quite wrong."
"Eh? What's this? I had it straight from Old Birdcage."
"It's his idea, not mine."
Kirdy's ruddy features twisted in puzzlement.
"What does he have in mind?"
"Ask him yourself."
Kirdy grimaced.
"There's no talking to the old codger.
Things go his way or not at all. Someday I expect I'll go in and find him sitting in the chandelier, scratching his arse with one hand and eating a banana with the other."
Glawen grinned, but made no comment.
Kirdy looked gloomily off across the terrace.
"There's only one way to deal with him. It's simple and practical: I obey orders to the exact iota and keep my ideas to myself. He^ll find out what he's been losing one of these days but then it will be too late, and it will serve him right."
"Yes, no doubt. What's involved in joining the Bold Lions?"
"Nothing much." Kirdy tossed a packet of papers down on the table.
"Memorize the Roars and Growls; that's important.
Then study the bylaws well, in case someone gets officious and tries to put you through the Tail March."
"And what's that?"
"Just an exercise where you demonstrate your extreme leoninity."
Glawen glanced through the papers.
"What's this mean:
"Agrolio, agrolio, agrolio'?"
"That's just one of the formal roars."
Glawen threw down the paper.
"This is foolishness."
Kirdy grinned widely.
"Of course it is! But out-on the beach, with a keg of beer, it becomes quite the thing! Be sure to memorize everything correctly."
"Why bother? I'll never get by Aries."
