"I've told you again and again," said Hedgerly, "that no matter what you do, you're doing just what history says—note the past tense—you did! Even to producing a means of controlling neutrons, Peter. Now, of course, you'll continue here, though this being the Theoretical Physics Laboratory, you'll let this information disperse. The other boys will pick it up and develop it while you continue to delve into the relationship between magnetism and gravitics."
"And suppose I do not?"
"Oh, but you did."
"Not," growled Peter, his voice reaching a crescendo, "if I go nuts first!"
Hedgerly spoke quietly to Marie. "You take care of him," he told her. "There's nothing like it for cementing a fond relationship."
"Must I give up my life work?" exploded Peter angrily. "I'd rather work on this gadgetry than eat! I've got me a lead that may end up by making me as famous as Faraday or Einstein and if I follow it, I'll end up so far behind the eight-ball that it'll look like a split pea."
Marie leaned back against the frame of the generator and smiled at him. "This," she said in a voice dripping with phony tones, "is a shock to me. Men usually brave fire and flood to touch the hem of my skirt. But you'd rather give up being historically famous than—"
"Shaddup," snapped Peter. "And let me think!"
"Think?" muttered the girl helplessly. "I think we're licked."
Peter nodded. "Licked, drawn, and quartered. Y'know, Marie, I've tried to resent you. I can't. Probably because I know you're in the same boat as I am."