Tregarron smiled. "I'm afraid Thinkers make pretty sad sweethearts."
"Not all of them," she told him, returning his smile tenderly.
He chuckled. "It's about one of those rocket physicists in the list you brought me. A fellow named Willard Farquar."
Caddy didn't say anything, but she stopped stroking his forehead.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "You knew him once, didn't you?"
"Yes," she replied and then added, with surprising feeling, "The big, ugly ape!"
"Well, he's an ape whose services we happen to need. I want you to be our contact girl with him."
She took her hands away from his forehead. "Look, Jan," she said, "I wouldn't like this job."
"I thought he was very sweet on you once."
"Yes, as he never grew tired of trying to demonstrate to me. The clumsy, overgrown, bumbling baby! The man's disgusting, Jan. His approach to a woman is a child wanting candy and enraged because Mama won't produce it on the instant. I don't mind Jorj—he's just a pipsqueak and it amuses me to see how he frustrates himself. But Willard is...."