Moira's hands curled into small helpless fists. After a moment, she turned off the machine.
"What?" said Len incredulously. "To be continued—what kind of talk is that?"
"He says he's bored with the novel," Moira replied dully. "He says he knows the ending, so it's artistically complete; it doesn't matter whether anybody else thinks so or not." She paused. "But he says that isn't the real reason."
"Well?"
"He's got two reasons. One is that he doesn't want to finish the book till he's certain he'll have complete control of the money it earns."
"Yes," said Len, swallowing a lump of anger, "that makes a certain amount of sense. It's his book. If he wants guarantees...."
"You haven't heard the other one."
"All right, let's have it."
"He wants to teach us—so we'll never forget—who the boss is in this family."