Free Elder Isles 2: The Green Pearl by Jack Vance

not anxious to rule a kingdom, much less three. When I am here at Watershade, it all seems a joke!”
    “Nevertheless, things are as they are, and I have heard good reports of you. Now it is only proper that you occupy the High Chambers.”
    Aillas gave an uncomfortable grimace. “No doubt but what you are right, and you shall have your way. Still I feel my father’s presence everywhere! If you must have the truth, sometimes I think to see his ghost standing on the balcony, or looking into the embers when the fire burns low.”
    Weare made a scornful sound. “What of that? I see good Sir Ospero often. On moonlight nights, should I step into the library, he will be sitting in his chair. He turns to look at me, and his face is placid. I suspect that he loved Watershade so dearly that even in death he can not bear to depart.”
    “Very well,” said Aillas. “I hope that Sir Ospero. will forgive my intrusion. I will change none of his arrangements.”
    Again Weare found cause for protest. “Now then, lad! That is not as he would want it, since he loved you as well! The chambers are now yours and you must arrange them to your own taste, not to those of a ghost.”
    “So it shall be! Well then, what would you suggest?”
    “First, a good scraping, scouring and re-waxing of the woodwork. Then a careful over-wash of the plaster. The green, so I have noticed, tends to go dingy with time; why not try a nice pale blue with yellow for the moldings?”
    “Perfect! Exactly what is needed! Weare, you have a rare talent for such matters!”
    “Also, while we are on the subject, perhaps we should renovate the Lady Glyneth’s chambers. I will of course consult with her, but I suggest that we plaster over the stone and use washes of pink and white and yellow, for good cheer and happy awakenings!”
    “Just so! Look to it, Weare, if you will!”
    In the case of Glyneth, Aillas had fixed upon her a pretty little estate in a valley not far from Domreis, but she showed no great interest in the property and much preferred Watershade. Now fifteen years old, Glyneth, for the grace and charm of her own life, and the enlivenment of her friends, used a mingling of limpid simplicity and sunny optimism, together with a joyous awareness of the world’s absurdities. During the previous year she had grown taller by an inch, and though she liked to wear a boy’s trousers and blouse, only a person blind to beauty could mistake her for a boy.
    Dame Flora, however, considered not only her garments but her conduct unconventional. “My dear, what will folk think? When does a princess sail out on the lake in a cockboat? When does one find her climbing trees and perching among the owls? Or wandering the Wild Woods alone like a hoyden?”
    “I wish I might meet such a princess,” said Glyneth. “She would make me a fine companion; our tastes would be exactly alike!”
    “I doubt if two like her exist!” declared Dame Flora. “It is time that this present princess learns the uses of propriety, so that she will not disgrace herself at court.”
    “Dame Flora, have pity! Would you cast me out, perhaps into the cold and rain, merely because I cannot sew a fine seam?”
    “Never, my darling! But we must observe, we must learn, and we must practice the dictates of etiquette! You have reached the age and come into certain attributes of the body which make trousers altogether unsuitable, and we must plan for you a wardrobe of pretty frocks.”
    “Still, we must be practical! How can I jump a fence in a pretty frock? Ask yourself that!”
    “It is not necessary that you jump fences! I jump no fences. Lady Vaudris of Hanch Hall jumps no fences. Before long suitors of high degree will be trooping out here by the score to ask your hand in marriage. When they arrive and wish to pay their respects, and when they ask, I must say: ‘You will find her somewhere about the estate, either here or there.’ So off they go to look, and what will they think when