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Show Loose them, on your life!" Meanwhile, the boy behind Dr'Igor kept his eyes on Janni. He was still smiling brilliantly and not a little expectantly. They were, after all, pledged partners, and had been since right before Janni's departure for Terra. Though that move by her mother had been a shock to Janni, for the girl had told her ever and often that she wished never to be paired. And couldn't the good woman see how fatuous the boy was in all respects? Expected her good mother to doom her only child to a full lifetime with a pure and simple nitwit? Marry, and how the Sheblem family had slid downwards from the height of the old grandfather! Meanwhile, Dr'Anya noted the smile bestowed upon the child, Janni, by the beautiful youth-and indeed he was a beautiful youth, the image of his father.... Dr'Anya was brought up short of a sudden for she remembered full well that remark of Janni's and it came back, as it were, to haunt her. . .in double measure. He be the spit and image of Dr'Igor? Could she then have been led astray by that fact, trying in some sense to live through her daughter? The child had berated the boy as an empty head, and Dr'Anya, remembering well that statement of Janni's, looked keenly at the boy, endeavoring in some way to see beyond that brilliant smile. She looked and looked and looked as the bustle went on around her. The JackPonies were being moved, and the abashed young man who had pinned her arms was making a long apology: brushing her cloak off the whilst. Then Dr'Anya looked at Janni-and all this looking took place in a 188 |