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wentùwhich might be at whim to Tellus or to Thrale or to Alsakan or to any
unplumbed
cranny of inter-galactic spaceùand they informed her, apparently without
reservation,
as to everything they did. They loved their father and their brother and each
other and
themselves with the same whole-hearted fervor they bestowed upon her. They
behaved
always in exemplary fashion. None of them had ever shown or felt the slightest
interest
in any one of numerous boys and men; and this trait, if the truth is to be
told, Clarrissa
could understand least of all.
No. The only thing basically wrong with them was the fact, made
abundantly
clear since they first toddled, that they should not be and could not be
subjected to any
jot or tittle of any form of control, however applied.
Kathryn finished eating finally and gave her mother a bright, quick grin.
"Sorry,
mums, you'll just have to give us up as hard cases, I guess." Her fine eyes,
so like
Clarrissa's except in color, clouded as she went on: "I am sorry, mother,
really, that we
can't be what you so want us to be. We've tried so hard, but we just can't.
It's something
here, and here." She tapped one temple and prodded her midsection with a pink
fore-
finger. "Call it fatalism or anything you please, but I think we're slated to
do a job of
some kind, some day, even though none of us has any idea of what it's going to
be."
Clarrissa paled. "I've been thinking just that for years, dear . . . I've
been afraid to
say it, or even to think it . . . You are Kim's children, and mine . . . If
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there ever was a
perfect, a predestined marriage, it is ours . . . And Mentor said that our
marriage was
necessary . . ." She paused, and in that instant she almost perceived the
truth. She was
closer to it than she had ever been before or ever would be again. But that
truth was far
too vast for her mind to grasp. She went on: "But I'd do it over again,
Kathryn, knowing
everything I know now. 'Vast rewards', you know . . ."
"Of course you would," Kat interrupted. "Any girl would be a fool not to.
The
minute I meet a man like dad I'm going to marry him, if I have to scratch
Kay's eyes out
and snatch Cam and Con bald-headed to get him. But speaking of dad, just what
do
you think of l'affaire Radelix?"
Gone every trace of levity, both women stood up. Gold-flecked tawny eyes
stared
deeply into gold-flecked eyes of dark and velvety green.
"I don't know." Clarrissa spoke slowly, meaningfully. "Do you?"
"No. I wish I did." Kathryn's was not the voice of a girl, but that of an
avenging
angel. "As Kit says, I'd give four front teeth and my right leg to the knee
joint to know
who or what is back of that, but I don't. I feel very much in the mood to do a
flit out that
way."
"Do you?" Clarrissa paused. "I'm glad. I'd go myself, in spite of
everything he
says, except that I couldn't do anything . . . If that should be the job you
were talking
about . . . Oh, do. anything you can, dear; anything to make sure he comes
back to me!"
"Of course, mums." Kathryn broke away almost by force from her mother's
emotion. "I don't think it is; at least, I haven't got any cosmic hunch to
that effect. And
don't worry; it puts wrinkles in the girlish complexion. I'll do just a little
look-see, stick
around long enough to find out what's what, and let you know all about it.
"Bye."
At high velocity Kathryn drove her indetectable speedster to Radelix, and
around
and upon that planet she conducted invisible investigations. She learned a
part of the
true state of affairs, she deduced more of it, but she could not see, even
dimly, the
picture as a whole. This part, though, was clear enough.
A third-level operator, she did not have to be at the one apparent mouth
of a
hyper-spatial tube in order to enter it; she knew that while communication was
impossible either through such a tube from space to space or from the interior
of the
tube to either space, the quality of the tube was not the barrier. The
interface was.
Wherefore, knowing what to expect first and working diligently to solve the
whole
problem, she waited.
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