"I won't."
After June was gone, Mary returned to the task of making her face pretty, but after a moment, she turned from the mirror, leaned back, and tried to relax. Underneath her dress, her heart was pounding.
The warm air carried sounds of the night creatures. One of the great canal insects, screeching, flapped by the window. The tiny third moon crept up over the horizon, and the buildings cast triple shadows.
Buzzz. Buzzzz.
Still Mary waited.
Buzzz. Buzzzz. Buzzzzzz....
She was afraid to wait any longer. But by now she was sure that he would be down stairs.
There was a last-minute flurry of combing and primping, and then she rustled out of the room, her head erect, her eyes shining.
THE LARGE reception room was filling. Overhead, the color organ threw shimmering, prismatic beams on the ceiling. Beneath it, stiff, embarrassed spacemen, mostly officers dressed in parade uniforms, chatted in space-pidgin with the laughing, rainbow-haired girls.