Glawen said: "Aries told me that he knew my SI, that it was between 29 and 31."
Scharde raised his eyebrows. "31? Even 29? How is that possible? You'd be out with the collaterals before you even started!"
"I know."
"I'd pay no heed to Aries. He just hoped to put you in a turmoil, and he seems to have succeeded."
"He says he heard it from Spanchetta! And he said something about my not having any lineage!"
"Oh?" Scharde considered.
"Did he, now? What did he mean by that?"
"I don't know. I told him that he could not possibly know my SI, and he said: why not; that my lineage was a matter of record, or-more accurately--my lack of lineage."
"Ha," muttered Scharde.
"Now I begin to see. I just wonder . " His voice dwindled away. He went to stare out the window.
"There is indeed the flavor of Spanchetta in this business."
"Could she change my number?"
"That's an interesting question. She works at Bureau A and has access to the computer. Still, she'd never dare fiddle with the machinery; that's a capital crime. Whatever she has done, if anything, is bound to be legal."
Glawen shook his head in puzzlement.
"Why should she want to do such a thing? What difference does my number make to her?"
"We don't know yet whether or not anything has been done. If so, Spanchetta may or may not be responsible. If so again, the answer is simple. She forgets and forgives nothing. I'll tell you a story you've probably never heard before.
"Long ago she made up her mind to marry me, and she actually schemed with the House Mistress and Dame Lilian the Chatelaine so that they all began to take the match seriously, even without so much as consulting me. One evening, we were playing epaing. Spanchetta was on the court, shouting and cursing and making flamboyant signals,
and calling fouls where none existed and gray balls when they were pink, and yelling in outrage when someone dropped in a lob. Wilmor Veder called over to me: "Well, then, Scharde, looks like your marriage will be quite an adventure."
"I said: "I'm not getting married; where did you hear that?"
""It's all over! Everybody is talking about it."
""I wish someone would let me in on the secret. Who is the lucky| woman?" | ""Spanchetta, of course! I heard it from Carlotte." ;.
""Carlotte is talking doodle. I'm not marrying Spanchetta!
No^g today, not tomorrow, not last year, not at the second coming of Puliusl Feistersnap. In short, never, and not even then! Does that set matters| straight?"
"
"It sounds definite to me. Now you need only convince Spanchetta," who is standing right behind you." | "I looked around and there stood Spanchetta breathing flame.:
Everybody laughed and Spanchetta tried to murder me with her epaing bat, which made everyone laugh even more.
"So then, just for spite, she married poor Minis, and also took up;
with Namour. But she never forgave me.
"About a year later, I married your mother at Sarsenopolis on .Alphecca Nine. When we returned to Araminta Station, there were unpleasant incidents, many of them. Marya ignored them; so did I. Then you were born, and Spanchetta dislikes you in triplicate: because of me and your mother and because you are everything Aries is not. And now it just might be that she has found an opportunity to express herself."
"It's hard to believe."
"Spanchetta is a strange woman. You wait here; I want to make some inquiries."
Scharde went directly to the Bureau A offices in the New Agency, where, in his capacity as Commander of Police, he was able to make his investigation without hindrance.
Time was short; in two hours the House Supper, as inexorable in its regularity as the motion of Lorca around Sing, would begin. Scharde returned to Clattuc House and took himself to the pleasant high-ceilinged apartments occupied by Housemaster Fratano.
As Scharde entered the reception hall, he met Spanchetta coming from the inner parlor. Both stopped short, each thinking that here was the person he least wanted to see. Spanchetta spoke sharply:
"What are you doing here?"
"I could ask the same of you," said Scharde.
"But, as a matter of fact, I have Agency business to take up with Fratano."
"The time is late. Fratano is dressing." Spanchetta looked Scharde up and down.
"Are you coming to the Supper in that outfit? But why should I ask? You are notoriously lax where propriety is concerned."
Scharde gave a rueful laugh.
