Nodus regarded the girl through narrowed eyes. "The one's been spreading those half-wit tales about you and me."
She did not meet his look. "You'd never get Mrs. Jenson here alone."
"Then with her friends," he said expansively. With upturned hand he warded off protest. "I can tell you now that I expect to be ready—before the season is ended—for group therapy." He ignored her little scream of delight, Russ's slow smile of wonder. "Perhaps you don't quite realize—this evening—how important it's been." His voice had begun to tremble, and he rested a moment to steady himself. "After all the years with warts and small excrescences," he said, his eyes misting. "The humiliation of our work with corns...." He raised his head proudly. "But it was to this that it was all leading...." He pointed to the undefiled chair. "And now it begins to look as if we—and with no billions backing us, mind you—would be ready before the no-fallout bomb!"
The girl looked faint with wonder as Russ lisped complacently, "And without the disastrous destruction of priceless commodities."
THE END