Mr. Stitch (44 page)

Following his coronation, the Emperor first immediately dismissed the Committee on Moral Responsibility. He secondly reinstituted the Estimation of the Comstock Vie-Gorgons, returned their property to them, and permitted them to reopen their printing houses, after making it quite clear that the press was only free so long as it served the pleasure of His Majesty. He thirdly declared that it pleased His Majesty to remove certain pieces of literature from the Black List, among them the aforementioned
Theocles
.

Finally, Emperor Emilio VI Vie-Gorgon, by imperial decree, lifted the ban on the employment of women by industry in Trowth. He did not go so far as to grant the suffrage that was still in high demand among fairer sex, but it was widely accepted that this was a positive first step. And among those in the know, who suspected that Emilia Vie-Gorgon might have an unusual amount of influence over her sibling, it was considered an extremely optimistic sign.

During the following Armistice, Valentine Vie-Gorgon married Elizabeth Skinner. While it was a great disappointment for Valentine’s mother, father, brothers, sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins to see the youngest scion of the Comstock Vie-Gorgons marry so far below his station, it certainly came as no surprise. Indeed, upon great reflection, they allowed that marrying a lovely, intelligent, and professional woman was probably the most sensible thing Valentine had ever done. Elizabeth Skinner Vie-Gorgon was welcomed into the family, and if she was welcomed with some certain caution, rather than the customary joviality bespoke by such an arrangement, she was welcomed nonetheless.

Elijah Beckett, after many persuasions both tender and severe, surrendered finally to his retirement, and adjourned to the small village of Kyloe on Stark, and there kept to a small but well-appointed manner house subsidized by monies from Comstock Street. Finally relieved of the tedious weight of his lifelong burden, he listened to his old-fashioned music, snapped irritably at the young indige woman who had been employed to look after him, complained about the moral decay of the Empire and the strange fashions and disrespectful behaviors of the young people of the village, and otherwise engaged in all manner of similar pursuits peculiar to retired old men.

This state continued for some time until, during the deep and dreamy sleep brought on by the veneine, Elijah Beckett very quietly, very peacefully, very painlessly, slipped off his ravaged mortal flesh, and died.