"The human race needs babies! Kathryn, you sit so complacently in front of your Wall and pretend there isn't a world! There won't be unless you wake up."
"Don't be silly!"
"I'm not. Kathryn, you may be the youngest person in the world, for all I know. Forty or fifty years from now this planet will be cluttered with blank Walls. There'll be no one to watch them."
"Well, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not different, like you."
"Kathryn, marry. Have children. Persuade your friends at the office—"
She laughed shrilly, rocking back against the Wall seat. "Friends! They hate me, every one of them, and I hate them. Even if Bass did marry me, they'd only take him away."
Amanda clutched her fists. "I don't want you to marry Bass. You must find some nice boy your own age."
"Oh, Mother! You want me to marry some stupid, ugly boy! You can't make me!"
"Kathryn, he needn't be dull. There are hundreds of boys, each interesting in—"