"Hello, Master Kelsey. You had a fine day at the office?"
"Fine! It was great, simply perfect!" He said it almost fiercely, as though even a robot might challenge the statement.
As he stared at the Tevee's hypnotic glow, his face began to relax a little. "Everybody," he whispered, "was happy today. The Manager gave our office group a Silver Star for being tops in the Group Sociability scale for the week."
"That's wonderful, Master Kelsey!"
He stared at her. "I wish they had made you so you could smile more, Alice. The way you look, it—it gives me a sort of doubtful feeling sometimes."
If you only knew how I felt, my dearest Kelsey, inside, inside the machinery that has the cold and tiny shell. I'm all one great warm smile of joy just to be near you, darling Kelsey.
"I'm happy for you, Master Kelsey," she said.
He nodded slowly.
Why wasn't he happier, she wondered, as she had wondered so many times before. He had all that anyone should need to be happy. In the first place, he was human among many others who were human. And then all the other things, and the woman, the woman he loved, Gloria Tonnencourt, the woman he loved, loved, loved—
Gloria was coming over to see him tonight. Alice would have to watch it again, hear it again. She would have to listen again to love, while she stood alone and frozen in the dark closet of her own longings.