"Doing what?"

"Recruiting new members."

"Good evening, Miss Beyle. I've always tried to be a gentleman. I'd better hang up before I forget myself."

He hung up and tried to sleep.


The next day an economist came to see him. The day after it was a social scientist and the day after that a political scientist. He listened patiently for a week as they sat in his apartment and explained the importance of the group to him.

"Man is nothing," they said. "Unless he belongs to a group."

"On the contrary," Mr. Westing said, "the group is nothing unless I belong to it."

"That's egotism."

"Probably."