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for Ramus Ymph; he is a scoundrel.
Oh come! Sune protested. He is hardly that! Ambitious, zestful, gallant,
invincible all of these perhaps. Even unprincipled but not a scoundrel.
Call him what you like; he and that ammoniated Mieltrude roundly deserve each
other.
Oh, the match is broken now. The Nobilissimus no longer needed the
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association. Ramus Ymph was unconcerned; his feelings were not really
engaged.
Understandably not.
Sune laughed again. You really misjudge Mieltrude. She is not as icily
statuesque as she likes to pretend.
It is all a game with her. I think that she prefers the world of imagination
to ordinary life. She is not really gregarious, you know.
And you, on the other hand?
I am at home in all classes of society. It is tiresome always to be impinging
caste.
The hack, now trundling along one of the boulevards, slowed at an
intersection. Noting a small café, Jubal said: Perhaps you might wish to
alight here and take a cordial or a goblet of wine?
Sune observed him sidelong. Somewhat slowly she said: I am fond of green
wine; I would find a goblet of Baratra refreshing.
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Jubal halted the hack; they alighted and walked back to the café. Sune
selected a table in the shade of a dendifer vine, and pulled the hood demurely
up to shadow her face.
With reckless extravagance Jubal ordered a flask of the superb
Baratra-Baratra, at the price of a day s pay.
Sune sipped and looked musingly off down the avenue. At a loss for topics,
Jubal said: So the Lady
Mieltrude is no longer to espouse Ramus Ymph. Is she melancholy?
One never knows about Mieltrude. She guards her private thoughts with great
skill. Sometimes I would think her indifferent toward Ramus Ymph, then other
times she exerted herself to be amiable. Perhaps she played at the whole
relationship; who is to say? She never fully confided in me, that much is
certain.
Jubal refilled her goblet. Something very strange and frightening happened to
me.
I am surprised to hear a Glint admit to fear.
Jubal heaved a sigh. Do you remember the occurrence at the Parloury?
Of course. How could I forget?
The evening after, I was set upon by executives with a warrant for my
punitive torment. The warrant was signed by Mieltrude and it was falsely
arbitrated. Nai the Hever will not listen to my complaints, and I
want to get to the bottom of the matter.
There is really no mystery whatever. Mieltrude is embarrassed by the
circumstances. After his rejection, Ramus Ymph met Mieltrude and myself in the
Parloury buffet. Mieltrude explained your role in the occasion and Ramus was
furious. He claimed that you had maligned him with absurd lies, and said that
you deserved at least ten, or better, twenty, strokes of the birch upon your
bare backside. The idea amused
Mieltrude and she declared that such treatment might deflate your foolish
Glint vanity , as she put it.
Ramus Ymph said, Excellent, we are of a mind. Step just up the stairs to the
warrant office and we will elicit a warrant. You must sign it because I would
forfeit dignity were I to do so. Mieltrude was in a flighty mood, and it
pleased her to feign feckless irresponsibility. So she merely laughed and
tossed her hair, and when Ramus Ymph produced the warrant she scribbled her
name on it with utter insouciance.
That is the story. You must not blame Mieltrude; she was only playing a game.
Do you know to what effect? I was to be primed with hyperaesthesic, soaked in
herndyche, suffer thirteen breaks in my arms and legs, then abandoned on the
beach to live or die.
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And what happened? You are not dead.
No. I was lucky enough to defeat the executives. No thanks to Ramus Ymph or
Mieltrude Hever.
Sune said thoughtfully: Ramus Ymph is harsh with his enemies. Still, he is
more than indulgent with his
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friends.
You sound as if you approve of him!
Sune shrugged. He is a dynamic and handsome man. But let us talk of other
things. You are now employed by the Nobilissimus? In what capacity?
I am to undertake a dangerous mission. I would like to discuss it with you
but I have been warned to discretion.
Exciting! So you have become one of D3 s secret agents!
D3? I work from D3 as an inspector.
You need not be coy. D3 is the secret intelligence bureau. Don t you work
under Eyvant Dasduke? How romantic! You are a lucky man! D3 agents work as
they wish, and draw salary in hundred-toldeck packets!
I have not quite advanced to that level. I draw my salary in one very slight
packet of single-toldeck notes.
The Nobilissimus is notoriously penurious both with public funds and his own.
Never reveal that I so informed you!
Never. You can trust me with anything.
Sune drank half the goblet and set it back on the table. I must go. Please
call me a hack.
I will see you home.
Sune touched his hand with her fingers; nervous vibrations coursed up Jubal s
arm. Remember that I am a Mircea. My father would become excited to see me
with a person such as yourself.
And what of you? Are you embarrassed because I am a Glint?
Sune thought a moment. Let me be frank. Here I am not embarrassed. I enjoy
your company. I consider you a remarkable man, and it is not your fault that
you were born in Glentlin. But, elsewhere, with my family and friends, I am
not strong enough to cope with the pressure.
Then I may see you again?
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Yes. But we must be discreet.
Jubal leaned forward, took her two hands in his. Could I dare to hope that
you think kindly of me?
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