"Andre Norton - Dread Companion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

will discover, once you walk beyond these walls, that you will be
considered above the ordinary in the sight of most. And, as you note, you
have an adequate and healthy body. Therefore, you shall not waste this by
crawling into shadows and turning your back upon the world."

"It is better," I protested, "to stay where I am happy than to be returned
to a Forsmanian clan house or to be a clerk in some government hive until I
become as dull-witted as the walls about me."

"Perhaps so." He nodded. I was surprised at winning my point so easily.
Then he went on. "But you cite only two of the possibilities now before
you. There are others - "

"Trade marriage?" I ventured the third I had considered.

"As a means of escape? I think not. The traders are too careful of their
women, having so few of them. You might find such an alliance even more
stultifying than your first two suggestions. There is this - "

He must have pressed another of his buttons, for there flashed on the
screen, obliterating my own image, a government announcement. It was one of
those general offers to emigrants, a fulsome and probably much overstated
listing of all the glowing opportunities awaiting the properly qualified on
a frontier planet.

"You forget"-though I did not see how he could-"that I am not
hand-promised, nor am I medically trained, nor - "

"You are in a very negative mood." But he did not sound impatient. "This is
the official listing. There are other possible ways of joining such a
company, namely as a house aide for someone with children of a teachable
age. You have given assistance in the classes here. And certainly your
training is above that of such aides. The position would be temporary, of
course, but it gives you a chance for emigration. And on a new world there
will be more opportunities. There is a tendency - unless the emigration
group is that of some close-knit religious sect-to be less rule-bound on a
frontier world. You might well have such a position there as is barred to
your sex on these inner planets."

What he said made good sense. There was only one flaw.

"They may think me too young."

"Your recommendations will be of the highest." He said that with such
confidence that I had to believe he had thought the whole matter over and
only my consent was needed.

"Then-then-I'll do it!" I had always imagined that if I were offered any
chance to leave Chalox and lift into the unknown of the far stars, I would
do it without a moment's hesitation. Yet now that I said I would go, I