Lord, and tell me if any evil has been done."
70 Red Cat smiled. "Woman," he admitted, "you have presented the
greatest evidence of all. When I first heard this case spoken, I would
have declared this mating broken. But now that I have heard of it and
seen it, I can find no evil in this man.
71 Perhaps what he did was not honorable, but what is not honorable,
and what is unlawful is two different things. This man used no undue
threat. The loss of riches is something a family can survive. Though
these women were young at the time, they had enough maturity of mind to
understand what was expected of them. Therefore, this is not to be
spoken of again.
72 And sir," Red Cat turned to the girl's father, "if I were you, I
would apologize to this man for the inconvenience and embarrassment
that you have caused him. Now it is over and done with. Go home."
73 As everyone went to depart, Red Cat spoke to The Lords. "Lords," he
questioned, "if you could restore my life, could you not restore his
face?"
74 "We do not need to," said a voice in his ear. "When he is at home,
his veil hangs on a peg by the door. None of them see his face as it
is. They see the man inside. And if you were to ask him which
would he
want, his face made new, or a blind child to see, which do you think he
would answer?"
75 Red Cat smiled. "Yes, Lords," he whispered, "I understand!"
76 In another city Red Cat heard this case. A man came before him,
accusing his Village Speakers of stealing his property. "They took it,"
he wept, "to build a new dock for our village, so the fishermen could land their
catch. There were many other places they could have built this dock,
but they said my land was the most appropriate place, the best location.