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. You don't ask a lady her age on Terra; you assume that she is younger than she is."
"So?" Thorby pondered this curious custom. Among People a female claimed the highest age she could, for status.
"So. For example, your mother was a lovely lady but I never knew her age. Perhaps she was twenty-five when I knew her, perhaps forty."
"You knew my parents?"
"Oh, yes! Uncle Creighton was a darling with a boomy voice. He used to give me handfuls of dollars to buy candy sticks and balloons with my own sweaty little hand." She frowned. "But I can't remember his face. Isn't that silly? Never mind, Thor; tell me anything you want to. I'd be happy to hear anything you don't mind telling."
"I don't mind," Thorby answered, "but, while I must have been captured, I don't remember it. As far as I remember, I never had parents; I was a slave, several places and masters -- until I reached Jubbulpore. Then I was sold again and it was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me."
Leda lost her company smile. She said in a still voice, "You really mean it. Or do you?"
Thorby suffered the ancient annoyance of the returned traveler. "If you think that slavery has been abolished . . . well, it's a big galaxy. Shall I roll up my trouser leg and show you?"
"Show me what, Thor?"
"My slave's mark. The tattoo a factor uses to identify merchandise." He rolled up his left trouser
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