"My confidential secretary," Zitts said by way of introduction. "Miss Xuren Claustinkelwickwellopiandusselkuck. I streamline that a bit and call her Zoo. Zoo, this is Mrs. Elmer-Brown Jake-Smith."
"What?" The blonde woman's eyes snapped from Zoo to Zitts. "How did you know my name? And how did you know I had two husbands?"
"One husband," Zitts corrected. "Mr. Jake-Smith was done to death in some mysterious manner yesterday morning at daylight just as he was going to bed for the day. But you're still entitled to both names, having been legally wed to both men. The beyondlaws, I believe, are bidding Elmer-Brown."
"Beyondlaws? Isn't that an outmoded term? Its meaning has slipped me."
"Outmoded, yes, but still appropriate. Coined to replace the term congressmen. They once made the laws, I believe, but they were beyond the laws themselves. Then the people got stirred up and demoted them to ratcatchers and put responsible men in their places. They worked up from ratcatchers to jobs then known as policemen. The term ratcatchers stuck, but it seems more dignified to call them beyondlaws. These people are holding your other husband, leaving you husbandless. But that shouldn't be so bad. With your shape you ought to be able to snare a hundred husbands."
The woman dropped her eyes and blushed. "You shouldn't flatter a poor widow at a time like this," she said coyly. "But how do you know all these things about me?"
Zitts turned to the Venusian. "Show her, Zoo," he said.
Zoo uncrossed her graceful legs and leaned forward on the mechanical knee.
"Why," the blonde woman broke in, "does she sit on a thing like that? It—it's so suggestive of sitting on a man's lap."