<div>James Wynn wrote: <br></div><blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote"><pre>Chenille says Hy came to work for a commissioner to keep his kids<br>
("eight or nine sprats I guess").</pre><br></blockquote><br>The "eight or nine sprats" are actually Hyacinth's brothers and sisters. Here is the context. The commissioner said he wanted a maid, not a nanny. The interjection about sprats suggests why her father could spare her, and his desperation to have a better-paying job. It looks like a sale to me. And if this is the Rajan, what is his relationship to all these sprats?<br>
<br><pre>"...One of the commissioners saw [Hyacinth] when she was maybe fourteen, and<br>said, 'Listen, I need a maid. Send her up and she can live at my<br>house'--they had eight or nine sprats, I guess--'and she can make a little<br>
money, too, and *you'll get a nice promotion.*' Hy's father was just a<br>*regular* clerk then, probably."<br><br>It's interesting that the name Hyacinth has triple ambiguity in the Viron naming system.<br>
1) A type of plant (female)<br>2) A name for yellow zircon (chem)<br>3) A species of pigeon (male)<br><br>I go for transgendered male to female, for all the usual reasons (body looks like a boy, except for artificial breasts, tougher fighter than she looks) and also:<br>
1) The mural in her room that alludes to several other greek males in relationships like Hyacynthus, without specifically naming him (emphasis of a clue by omission).<br>2) The gay Blood would find it amusing to tempt the city officials with a sex-changed boy.<br>
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