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to her whims and demands, however exorbitant or unreasoning they might be,
lavishly expending his resources, of whatever extent they might be, bringing
him to the brink of ruin, and, if she wished, beyond it, demeaning him in
public, ranting at him in private! Oh, yes, she would make him pay!
"And so," said Pulendius, "a toast to our charming fellow passenger! All
happiness and delight to her! May she soon be joined in joy with her
betrothed!" The toast was then drunk.
The officer of the court blushed once more, angrily. "Drink, drink!" called
the men.
She lifted the delicate, shallow, transparent bowl to her lips, find took a
sip. She looked at
Pulendius, over the rim of the bowl.
"A joyous union," said the captain, lifting his glass.
"And a fecund one," said the naval officer, lifting his.
She looked at him, angrily.
"How excited you must be," said one of the women at the table.
"How eager you must be for his kisses," said another.
"Joy to you," said another.
"Happiness!" said another.
"May you leap in his arms like a slave," said another.
"Yes, yes," said several of the men.
She blushed, hotly.
How different these people were, how different from those of her home world,
how different from those of Terennia!
"See her!" laughed Pulendius, once more taking his seat.
"Please," she protested.
Pulendius threw back his head, draining his bowl of kana
. He had had perhaps too much to drink.
"We bring a virgin to Miton!" said Pulendius, who was a vulgar fellow.
He turned his bowl upside down on the tablecloth and seized up a napkin. "But
soon!" he cried.
To be sure, she, a member of a high class, even a minor patrician, was indeed,
at that time, a virgin.
She looked up, embarrassed, at the gladiator, the bodyguard, he still at his
post behind, and to the right, of Pulendius.
Yes, he was regarding her, and as though she might be in a slaver's house, and
with that same subtle contempt as before.
How she hated him!
And then she was afraid, and a mad thought, meaningless, and absurd, coursed
through her mind.
"I do not want to be whipped," she thought. Then, swiftly, confusedly, she
dismissed this thought, so mad, so absurd.
Many women of Terennia were virgins, or "superiors," as the phrase was on
Terennia, particularly those of the educated, upper classes, sexuality being
regarded as demeaning to women. Too, of course, marriage, and childbearing,
and such things, were also frowned upon on that world, at least, again, among
the women of the upper classes. What rational creature would wish to burden
itself with such matters? The union between the officer of the court and the
official, Tuvo Ausonius, we might note, had, accordingly, been arranged
without a great deal of publicity, indeed, one might even say it had been
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
arranged somewhat surreptitiously. But there could be a point in such things,
you see, as embarrassing or regrettable as they might be, if they resulted in
one's, or someone's, social, economic or professional advancement.
"But then!" had cried Pulendius.
And then he brought down his fist, wrapped in the napkin, heavily on the
delicate, brittle, transparent bowl, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
The officer of the court shuddered, and blushed, and, doubtless heated by the
kana
, her senses reeling, almost swooned. This reaction may seem regrettably
feminine, but one must consider the entirety of the circumstances, the power
of Pulendius, the might of the men behind him, the laughter of those at the
table, the heating of the kana
, the fearful uneasiness in her own body, the sudden awareness, not for the
first time, of its smallness and slightness, its softness and vulnerability,
its great difference from that of men, and then the force of that massive fist
striking down, shattering the bowl. In that moment much was conveyed to her on
both a physical and a symbolic level. But I do not think we need to think of
this reaction on her part, that she was then almost overcome, that she was
then so shaken, that she almost swooned, as being regrettably feminine. That
would be, after all, to adopt the values of Terennia, or of certain of its
classes, and we wish to retain a neutrality in such matters, merely recounting [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]