"You tell him, Bet," she said gently. "You're the one who should."
I'd never noticed how pretty the girl was till then, when she stood there with her face flushed and her eyes straight on mine. A pang went through me; if only she and Hal could have—
"No, Mr. Sturt," she said, "we haven't rescued Hal. He's gone. But we've rescued part of him. I'm going to have his baby."
"Bet's going to live with us and be our daughter, Frank," Lucy explained. "Hal and she and I worked it out in these two weeks, after they came to me and told me how they felt about each other. We couldn't tell you till we were sure; I couldn't bear to have you hope and then be disappointed—it would be enough for me to have to suffer that."
"That is, I'll come if you want me here, Mr. Sturt," said Bet.
I had to sit down before I could speak. "Of course I want you. But what about your own family?"
"I haven't any. My mother's dead and my father's an engineer on Ganymede and gets home on leave about once in three years. I've been living in a youth hostel."
"But look here—" I turned to Lucy—"how on Earth can you know? Two weeks or less is no time—"
Lucy gave me a look I recognized, the patient one of the scientist for the layman.
"The Chow-Visalius test, dear. One day after the fertilized ovum starts dividing—"