"Jack Vance - Meet Miss Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

Christom. Also judges from some of the other worlds. The Prime of Ursa Major.
The Veidranu PrefectтАФwhat's his name? And the Baten Kaitos Grand Mar-shall
..."
Clydell puffed his cigar. "Organizing it that way would make the judging
impartial . . . But how in the world could I compare some cute little Earth
girl with a Sadal Suud Isobrod? Or one of those Pleiades dragon-women? That's
the rub of the whole matter."
"It's a stumbling block ... A big problem. A big problem."
"Well," said Clydell. "Every problem has its solution. That's an axiom,"
Tony said thoughtfully, "Sup-pose we judged each candidate by her own
standardsтАФby the ideals of her own people? That way the contest becomes
perfectly fair."
Clydell puffed vigorously on his cigar. "Possible, possible."
"We do some research, get the ideal of every race. A set of
specifi-cations. Whoever most closely ap-proaches the ideal specifications is
winner. Miss Universe!"
Hardeman Clydell cleared his throat. "All this is very well, Tony.
. . .But, you're neglecting one very important aspect. Financing."
"It's too bad," said Tony.
"What's too bad?"
"You and I being in the posi-tion we are. WeтАЩre stuck by the ethics of the
situation."
Clydell looked at him with a puzzled frown, opened his mouth to speak, but
Tony hurried on.
"There's no way we could honor-ably stage this tremendous spectacle
ourselves."
Clydell looked interested. "You think it would make money?"
Tony LeGrand smiled wryly. "How many people have seen as much as a Mars
Arenasaur? Let alone a Pentacynth or a Sagittarius Helmet-head? And we'll
have the beauty queens of the whole uni-verse gathered here!"
"True," said Clydell. "Very true indeed."
"It'll be the biggest thing in the whole Exposition."
Clydell threw his cigar over the side. "It'll bear thinking about."
Which Tony LeGrand knew to be a form of qualified approval.



II

Hardeman Clydell, for reasons known best to himself, had never married. At
this stage in his life he was portly, with a smooth pink face, fine white hair
which he wore in dashing sideburns. An extremely wealthy man, he was serving
as General Director at a salary of a dollar a year. He was an ardent
sportsman; he owned his own space-boat; he enjoyed cooking and serving little
dinners of viands im-ported from distant worlds. His cigars were rolled to
order from a special black tobacco grown on the Andaman Islands, smoked over
na-tive campfires, cured with arrack, and aged between oak leaves.
He had met Tony LeGrand on the beach at Tannu Tuva, offered him a cigar.
When' Tony pro-nounced it the best he had ever smoked, Clydell knew that here
was a man whose judgment he could trust absolutely. He hired Tony as his