"Have you stopped loving me?"
His answer was unhesitating. "No, and I never will. But I have no right since I became—like this."
She made a sound between a gasp and a sob.
"But that Venusian girl?"
Barry fumbled for words. "I—I love her too. It's just that I—well—you and she belong in different worlds and I'm—I'm part of both but not fully of either."
"Oh! But you'll come back—for short periods at least?"
"If I live through what's coming," he answered soberly.
She smiled with an effort. "Be careful, Barry dear, and—good luck!"
She turned, running back toward the buildings, and he plunged into the reeking swamp, backtracking along his own trail of muddy footprints and crushed vegetation.
He emerged at the fallen tree, dived in, and with a sense of relief filled his lungs with water.