“I am well. ‘Ponse’?” Hugh scratched the cat’s ears.
“Don’t you know his name? The Lord Protector, I mean. No, I guess you wouldn’t. That’s one of his names, one he uses en famille. Never mind, have they been treating you right?”
“I suppose so.”
“They had better. Ponse gave orders for you to be pampered. Look, if you aren’t treated okay, you tell me. I can fix it.”
Hugh hesitated. “Joe, have you had one of those odd whips used on you?”
“Me?” Joe seemed astonished. “Of course not. Hugh, have they been abusing you? Peel off that Mother Hubbard and let me have a look.”
Hugh shook his head. “There are no marks on me. I haven’t been hurt. But I don’t like it.”
“But if you’ve been stroked for no reason- Hugh, that’s one thing that Ponse does not tolerate. He’s a very humane sort of guy. All he wants is discipline. If anybody-anybody at all, even Memtok-has been cruel to you, somebody is going to catch it.”
Hugh thought about it. He rather liked his teachers. They had worked hard and patiently and had been sparing of him once it became possible to talk instead of using the whip. “I haven’t been hurt. Just reminded.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Actually, Hugh, I didn’t see how you could be. That quirt Ponse carries-you could kill a man with it at a thousand feet; it takes skill to use it gently. But those toys the upper servants carry, all they do is tingle and that’s all they are supposed to do.”
Hugh decided not to argue over what constituted a tingle; he had urgent things on his mind. “Joe, how are the others? Have you seen them?”
“Oh, they’re all right. You heard about Barbara?”
“I haven’t heard a damn thing! What about Barbara?”
“Slow down. Having her babies, I mean.”
“She had her baby?”
“’Babies.’ Twin boys, identical. A week ago.”
“How is she? How is she?”
“Easy, man! She’s fine, couldn’t be better. Of course. They are way ahead of us in medicine; losing a mother, or a baby, is unheard of.” Joe suddenly looked sad. “It’s a shame they didn’t run across us months back.” He brightened. “Barbara told me that she had intended to name it Karen, if it was a girl. When it turned out to be twin boys, she named one-the one five minutes the elder-‘Hugh’ and the other ‘Karl Joseph.’ Nice, eh?”
“I’m flattered. Then you’ve seen her. Joe, I’ve got to see her. Right away. How do I arrange it?”
Joe looked astonished. “But you can’t, Hugh. Surely you know that.”
“Why can’t I?”
“Why, you’re not tempered, that’s why. Impossible.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is.” Joseph suddenly grinned. “I understand that you were almost made eligible by accident. Ponse laughed his head off at how close you came and how you and Duke yelped.”
“I don’t see the humor of it.”
“Oh, Hugh, he simply has a robust sense of humor. He laughed when he told me about it. I didn’t laugh and he decided that I have no sense of humor. Different people laugh at different things. Karen used to use a fake Negro dialect that set my teeth on edge, the times I overheard it. But she didn’t mean any harm. Karen- Well, they just don’t come any better, and you and I know it and I’ll shut up about it. Look, if the vet had gone ahead, without orders, it would have cost him his hands; Ponse sent that word to him. Might have suspended the sentence-good surgeons ‘are valuable. But his assumption was only natural, Hugh; both you and Duke are too tall and too big for stud. However, Ponse doesn’t tolerate sloppiness.”
“All right, all right. I still don’t see the harm in my calling on Barbara and seeing her babies. You saw her. And you’re not tempered.”
Joe looked patiently exasperated. “Hugh, it’s not the same thing. Surely you know it.”
“Why isn’t it?”
Joe sighed. “Hugh, I didn’t make the rules. But I’m Chosen and you’re not, and that’s all there is to it. It’s not my fault that you’re white.”