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promised my mother on her deathbed not to fornicate before marriage. I once got as far as betrothal to the daughter of our senior sergeant; but she forsook me for one who, I ween, was less scrupulous."
     
                  She drank more schnapps and giggled. "Sh — serves you right! What a pity that yours be a lower-class organ! I could give you lessons — break you in — were not plebian organs forbidden my c — c — " She fell into a spell of hiccups.
     
                  Thorolf said, "Mean you — ah — that you've had much experience of such things?"
     
                  She got her hiccups under control. "What thinkst? We of the true nobility make no holy idol of chast — " The hiccups broke in again.
     
                  Fearing that she would pass out o r get publicly sick, Thorolf spoke sharply, in the tone he used on stumbling recruits: "Come, Yvette! Let me take you to bed!"
     
                  He half-forcibly dragged her out of her seat and guided her, staggering, to the stair. Here she became so unsteady that he pick ed her up and carried her to the room. When he would have laid her on the bed, she said:
     
                  "Put me down, Thorolf! I am hale; but tell nobody that I cannot hold my liquor. 'Twas jush the fatigue of recent days."
     
                  When her feet came to the floor, she pulled Thorolf. clutching his arm and staggering, to the settee. There she pushed him down, sat on his lap, and kissed him vigorously. "There! Izh — isn't that better?"
     
                  "Well — ah — "
     
                  She kissed him some more. "Now you shall learn what you should have found out ye ars agone. "
     
                  " Methought you said — "
     
                  "Ne'mind what I shaid. I'm a noblewoman and can bed anyone I like. Besides, I'm in your debt, and debts mush be paid. Since I cannot fill your hat with g-gold ... " Rising unsteadily, she did off the bodice, blouse, skirt, petticoat, and accessories. Leaving the garments bor rowed from Vulfilac in a heap on the floor, in full pink-and-white glory she staggered back to Thorolf and fumbled with his laces, mumbling:
     
                  "Flinch not; I'll not hurt you. You actually blush!" She peeled off Thorolf's shirt. "Now your breeks ... Aha. I see you have indeed the means ... "
     
                  "I only hope I can meet your expectations," said Thorolf.
     
                  "Fear not: if our first firsh try come to noug ht ... " As she pulled off the last of Thorolf's linen small clothes, she broke off, dropped the underwear, and fell into a sitting position on the settee. "Thorolf, I feel very strange of a sudden!"
     
                  "After all that liquor — " he began sententiously.
     
                  "But then, too, it must be close to the time for Bardi's spell to take effect."
     
                  "Oh, I had forgotten! Wilt still love me, even though I become dark and dumpy? I shall still be the same ... Ouch! I am in pain ... glub — "
     
                  As Thorolf gazed with mounting horror , the slight, golden-haired woman changed before his eyes. Her voice sounded like the bubbling of gas through swamp water and then ceased. She seemed to flow together. Her limbs became limp, as if their bones had dissolved. Her face lost form and sank int o her body.
     
                  Thorolf shrank back, for the thing on the settee was no longer remotely human. Its parts shifted into a com pletely alien configuration. The limbs and eyes mi grated to one end, leaving the torso a mere fleshy bag.
     
                  The four limbs split lengt hwise to form eight, which became sucker-lined tentacles. They surrounded the mouth, which acquired a short, horny beak. The skin changed to a shiny,