Tradedesk, Gallery 770

In which Jethri brings the evening to a satisfactory conclusion.

This may well be seeing a connection where none is intended, but I can’t go past the mention of “a qe’andra of extreme melant’i and form” without thinking of the dea’Gauss.

I don’t think, from what we’ve seen of him, that Bar Jan chel’Gaibin did intend, or even realise, the insult he offered to Samay pin’Aker – but in saying so, I’m effectively pronouncing him a person of little melant’i, and I can see why a well-brought-up young man like Jethri would avoid doing that while it remained possible to give him the benefit of the doubt. (And isn’t it interesting that giving him the benefit of the doubt means assuming him to be a person who would offer deliberate insult to a lady? I think it was Oscar Wilde who said that a gentleman is a person who never causes offence unintentionally.)

This is not the first time it’s been mentioned that Jethri ven’Deelin, as a son adopted of Clan Ixin, may be required to enter a contract marriage for the good of the clan. It may just be background, but I do wonder if it’s foreshadowing an event that will occur in this novel – and if so, whether it will be so tidy as a marriage to one of the young ladies whose acquaintance Jethri has already made. (At that, the odds could be better than a first glance might suggest; I suspect most of the delms, whatever their opinion of a Terran living and trading as a son of Liad, wouldn’t want their daughters to marry one.)