"Wait, please ..." wailed Channing's copy. It was his own voice and it was unnerving.
The copy wasn't. Not gradually, but all at once. The copy vanished.
"Well," said State, gazing about in a brief moment of confusion, "you haven't been able to prove your point, Channing. I see no evidence of collusion here. What were you trying to tell me, anyway?"
Channing shook his head. "I don't remember." It was as if he had just awakened from a dream and the more he tried to remember it, the vaguer his memory of it became.
"I suppose you know you're through, Channing."
"I—I was fired, wasn't I?"
"You were. I can't remember why, though ... wait a minute." The Secretary had seen Mrs. Delacourt.
"Certainly," she said, dragging herself up from the same un-remembered dream. "I insisted on it."
"You'll get decent references," said State.
"Thank you."