“Families?” she broke in. “You’ve come to realize, then, that the family is the sine qua non of civilization?”

“I’ve always known that.” Forestalling another interruption with a wave of his hand, he went on, “I know. I’ve never been a family man. On Earth or in our present cultures I would never become one. But skipping that for the moment, it’s your turn now.”

“I like it.” She thought in silence for a couple of minutes, then went on, “It must be an autocracy, of course, and you’re the man to make it work. The only flaw I can see is that even absolute authority can not make a dictated marriage either tolerable or productive. It automatically isn’t, on both counts.”

“Who said anything about dictated marriage? Free choice within the upper stratum and by test from the lower. With everybody good breeding stock, what difference will it make who marries whom?”

“Oh. I see. That does it, of course. Contrary to all appearances, then, you actually do believe in love. The implication has been pellucidly clear all along that you expect…”

“ ‘Expect’ is too strong a word. Make it that I’m ‘exploring the possibility of’.”

“I’ll accept that. You are exploring the possibility of me becoming your empress. From all the given premises, the only valid conclusion is that you love me. Check?”

“The word ‘love’ has so many and such tricky meanings that it is actually meaningless. Thus, I don’t know whether I love you or not, in your interpretation of the term. If it means to you that I will jump off of a cliff or blow my brains out if you refuse, I don’t. Or that I’ll pine away and not marry a second best, I don’t. If, however, it means a lot of other things, I do. Whatever it means, will you marry me?”

“Of course I will, Blackie. I’ve loved you a long time.”