The Ballad of Lost C'Mell

"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" is a science fiction novella by the American writer Cordwainer Smith (a pen name of Paul Linebarger). The novella was first published in October 1962 in Galaxy Magazine, and it has since been reprinted in several compilations and omnibus editions.

The novella's main characters are Jestocost, a lord of the Instrumentality of Mankind, and C'mell, a beautiful cat-derived "underperson" who works as a "girly-girl" (like an escort) at Earth's main spaceport. In Smith's fiction, an underperson is an animal given human speech and form, but no rights, while retaining some of its inherent genetics—for example, C'mell's father held the long-jump record during the time of the story.