_"... I knew her heart was breaking, And to my heart in anguish pressed, The girl I left behind me."_ Nadine looked up from the little table she occupied and caught the wry expression on his face and laughed. "What price glory?" she said. He took the chair across from her and chuckled ruefully. "All right," he said, "I surrender. However, if you think a theme song is bad, you'll be relieved at some of the other ideas my, ah, publicity agent had which I turned down." She said, "Oh, did he want you to dash into some burning building and save some old lady's canary, or something?" "Not exactly. However, he had a nightclub singer with a list of nine or ten victories behind her--" "Victories?" "Husbands. And I was to be seen escorting the singer around the nightclub circuit." "A fate worse than death? But, truly, why did you turn him down?" "I wanted to spend the time with you." She made a moue. "So as to carry on our never-ending argument over the value of status?" "No." Her eyes dropped and there was a slight frown on her forehead. Joe interpreted it to mean that she took exception to one of Mid-Middle caste speaking to her in this wise. He said, flatly, "At least the tune is somewhat applicable tonight." She looked up quickly, having immediately caught the meaning of his words. "Oh, Joe, you haven't taken another commission?" "Why not? I'm a mercenary by trade, Nadine." He was vaguely irritated by her tone. "But you admittedly made a small fortune on the last fracas. You were one of the very few investors in the whole country who expected Vacuum Tube Transport to boom, rather than go bankrupt. You simply don't _need_ to risk your life further, Joe!" He didn't bother to tell her that already the greater part of his small fortune had been siphoned off in Freddy Soligen's campaign to make him a celebrity. He said, instead, "The stock shares I'll make aren't particularly important, Nadine. But Stonewall Cogswell has pledged that if I'll fly for him in the Carbonaceous Fuel-United Miners fracas, he'll press my ambitions for promotion." She said, her voice low, "Promotion in rank, or caste, Joe?" "You know the answer to that." "But, Joe, to risk your life, your _life_, Joe, for such a silly thing--" He said softly, "Such a silly thing as attaining to a position which will enable me to court openly the girl I love?" She flushed, looked into his face quickly. Her flush deepened and her eyes went to her folded hands, on the table. He said nothing. Nadine said finally, her voice so low as almost not to be heard, "Perhaps I would be willing to marry a man of Middle caste."