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Show water by this time and had her eyes closed in rapture. "And he's very good on the Sheblem Hold, so far as working hard is concerned. And, marry, many is the maid in love with him, for he is full beautiful to look upon!" She looked at Janni. '"Tis the very best for which one can hope, my pearl, in a pairing..." Janni opened one eye and looked up at her mother for a long time. Then she sighed. "Thou sayest indeed, my mother?" she asked. "Then, if it please thee, pray grant me my life-long wish to pair not." She closed her eye. Dr'Anya looked at her astonished. "Pair not!" she said. "Pair not at all?" She looked at her feet, dumbfounded, afraid to press her daughter in view of their recent, and tentative, reconciliation. "Ah, but ye jest, my pearl. Thou wert but a child when thou saidest that thing a n d . . . ." Janni's voice came up from the rock, muffled. "I jest not, if it please thee, my lady mother-" "But...my p e a r l . . . " Never had she expected such a bald statement from her only child. The situation was grave indeed, doubly grave! 'Twould mean, mayhap, an end of her line among the Needlesmiths. Nay, surely, surely, the child is -distraught. She never really meant to pair not...'twas a child's whim.... Janni raised her head up and looked at her mother reproachfully. "Please forgive if I wound thee, for I wish not such a thing, but thou hast been enamored these many TwelveMonths of Grant-Sheblem, and 'tis muddied thy thinking, so that thou knowest not whom thou hast saddled me w i t h . . . ." Dr'Anya recoiled almost physically from the speech of her daughter and 202 |
