d
flame-yellow appeared across the terrace. The music began again,
this time the stately "Nobles' Wedding March," arrogant and at
the same time tender. Sesar Karvall's gentleman-secretary, and
the Karvall lawyer; executives of the steel mills, the Karvall
guard-captain. Sesar himself, with Elaine on his arm; she was
wearing a shawl of black and yellow. He looked around in sudden
fright; "For the love of Satan, where's our shawl?" he demanded, and
then relaxed when one of his gentlemen exhibited it, green and tawny
in Traskon colors. The bridesmaids, led by Lady Lavina Karvall.
Finally they halted, ten yards apart, in front of the Duke.

* * * * *

"Who approaches us?" Duke Angus asked of his guard-captain.

He had a thin, pointed face, almost femininely sensitive, and a
small pointed beard. He was bareheaded except for the narrow golden
circlet which he spent most of his waking time scheming to convert
into a royal crown. The guard-captain repeated the question.

"I am Sir Nikkolay Trask; I bring my cousin and liege-lord,
Lucas, Lord Trask, Baron of Traskon. He comes to receive the
Lady-Demoiselle Elaine, daughter of Lord Sesar Karvall, Baron
of Karvall mills, and the sanction of your Grace to the marriage
between them."

Sir Maxamon Zhorgay, Sesar Karvall's henchman, named himself and
his lord; they brought the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to be wed to
Lord Trask of Traskon. The Duke, satisfied that these were persons
whom he could address directly, asked if the terms of the
marriage-agreement had been reached; both parties affirmed this.
Sir Maxamon passed a scroll to the Duke; Duke Angus began to read
the stiff and precise legal phraseology.

Marriages between noble houses were not matters to be left open
to dispute; a great deal of spilled blood and burned powder had
resulted from ambiguity on some point of succession or inheritance
or dower rights. Lucas bore it patiently; he didn't want his
great-grandchildren and Elaine's shooting it out over a matter
of a misplaced comma.

"And these persons here before us do enter into this marriage
freely?" the Duke asked, when the reading had ended. He stepped
forward as he spoke, and his esquire gave him the two-hand Sword of
State, heavy enough to behead a bisonoid. Trask stepped forward;
Sesar Karvall brought Elaine up. The lawyers and henchmen obliqued
off to the sides. "How say you, Lord Trask?" he asked, almost
conversationally.

"W