perhaps two inches wide and deep. The hinged doors, fastened together by a gold latchet, opened upon three tiny drawers, each lined with darkly-lustrous, gold-speckled lacquer. The top and sides, as well as the doors, consisted of panels of fine, white bone. Upon each the craftsman had carved in relief the likenesses of different fishes-twelve in all-and these, with their scales, fins, gills and eyes all perfectly represented, were stained and shaded in their natural colors. Eight tripartite comer-pieces of silver bound the seven panels together and the doors had flat, undulated hinges about an inch long. It was a miracle of skill and patient craftsmanship-and quite simply a rich woman's toy.
Maia had never before seen anything at all like this, and for some time kept turning it over in her hands, examining it with the same kind of incredulity and delight that the early Victorians must have felt upon first seeing photographs. She opened the perfectly-hung doors, pulled out the drawers and rubbed her fore-finger Wonderingly over the slightly raised simulacra of the fishes, for she could not at first believe that they were not fixed or applied, but actually formed part of the surfaces of the panels themselves. Artistry of this order was something entirely new to her. She could never have imagined it and needed a little time to take it in.
Randronoth was shrewd, she thought. No one-no one, that was to say, with the least spark of sensitivity-could resist such a present. It was not a question of courtesy to the giver, or even of money value (although the piece must be worth at least two thousand meld and very likely more). It was the thing itself. Simply to see it would be enough to make anyone want to possess it. It was the very exemplar of a rarity and of exquisite, gratuitous luxury: and it was hers.
How cunningly it had been chosen to appeal to her! Oh, that did not escape her! Gold, jewels, robes-any ordinary kind of opulence-she could have declined. But this marvelous, unique plaything-whatever could you keep in it, she wondered; pins, rings, spools of silk?-how perfectly it was calculated to suit and to be irresistible to her in particular! Occula, perhaps, might just possibly have been proof against it: no one else that she knew. Any obligation involved in acceptance appeared negligible as she turned it this way and that, continually perceiving fresh details of
skill and beauty. The piece was not only faultless; it was almost immoderate in the delicacy and quality of its workmanship.
"This-this is very kind of Lord Randronoth," she murmured at last, latching the doors and placing the cabinet back on the table. "Will you please thank him very much and tell him that I'm grateful and delighted?"
"Then
"I've never seen work like this," she went on, herself growing more relaxed in her pleasure over the gift. "Do you happen to know where it came from?"
"That I can't tell you, saiyett," he answered. "It's old, I know that much, and I rather believe Lord Randronoth's family's possessed it for some time; possibly it may have been his grandfather who acquired it, for I know he once traveled a long way to the south, beyond Ikat Yeldashay. He-"
But with this he suddenly and rather oddly broke off, once more getting up and walking over to her where she still stood beside the table.
"Saiyett," he said quietly, "I would like to-that is- er-Lord Randronoth wishes me to talk to you privately."
She frowned, startled. "Well, isn't this private enough for you?"
"I would prefer it if we could walk in the garden, saiyett."
She was on the point of refusing, for his peculiar, tense manner and lack of warmth (Maia was unaccustomed to detachment from men, particularly young ones) had not made her particularly like or want to oblige him. However, it would hardly do to accept Randronoth's present and then send his messenger packing unheard.
"I'll have some wine brought out on the terrace," she said.
"Or we might, perhaps, walk down as far as the edge of the lake, saiyett."
She stared at him, as though at an impertinent servant; but he only stared back at her unwaveringly, his pupils expanded, like a cat's, in the fading light. "This is a serious matter, not primarily one of courtesy," those eyes seemed to be saying. "Surely you realize that?"
Still intent on showing that she and not he was in control, she called Ogma to bring her light cloak and a jug of wine. She filled a goblet for herself and one for him. He sipped it, again with his blank smile; but when they had descended the steps and begun strolling side by side between the shrubs and flower-beds towards the shore, she noticed that he had left it behind in the parlor.
He seemed hesitant to begin, and this annoyed her still more.
