"You mean that I don't measure up?" she asked, quietly. "I know very well that I don't, and admitting an evident fact should not hurt my feelings a bit. Don't interrupt, please," as Kit began to protest. "In fact, it is sheerest effrontery--it has always bothered me terribly, Kit--to be classed as a Lensman at all, considering what splendid men they all are and what each one of them had to go through to earn his Lens. You know as well as I do that I have never done a single thing to earn or to deserve it. It was handed to me on a silver platter. I'm not worthy of it, Kit, and all the real Lensmen know that I'm not. They _must_ know it, Kit--they _must_ feel that way!" "Did you ever express yourself in exactly that way before, to anybody? You didn't, I know." Kit stopped sweating; this was going to be easier than he had feared. "I couldn't, Kit, it was too deep; but as I said, I can talk _anything_ over with you." "QX. We can settle that fast enough if you will answer just one question. Do you honestly believe that you would have been given the Lens if you were not absolutely worthy of it? Perfectly--in every minute particular?" "Why, I never thought of it that way ... probably not ... no, certainly not." Clarrissa's somber mien lightened markedly. "But I still don't see how or why--" "Clear enough," Kit interrupted. "You were born with what the rest of them had to work so hard for--with stuff that no other woman, anywhere, ever had." "Except the girls, of course," Clarrissa corrected, half-absently. "Except the kids," he concurred. It could do no harm to agree with his mother's statement of a self-evident fact. * * * * * He crossed the room and adjusted a couple of dials. His vessel's screens would not now react to the thoughts of Mentor of Arisia, but would still announce the presence of any possible other. "You can take it from me, as one who _knows_, that the other Lensmen know that you've got plenty of jets. They all know also that the Arisians never did and never will make a Lens for anybody who hasn't got what it takes. And so, very neatly, we have stripped ship for the action I came over here to see you about. It isn't a case of you not measuring up, because you do, in every respect. It's simply that you're short a few jets that you ought by rights to have. You really are a Second-Stage Lensman--you know that, Mums--but you never went to Arisia for your real L2 work. I hate to see you blast off without full equipment into what may prove to be a big-time job; especially when you're so eminently able to take it. Mentor could give you the works in a couple of hours. Why don't you flit for Arisia right now, or let me take you there?" "No--NO!" Clarrissa backed away, shaking her head emphatically. "Never! I couldn't, Kit, ever--not _possibly_!" "Why not?" Kit was amazed. "Why, Mother, you're actually shaking!"