Miss Francis squatted ungracefully on her heels and looked up from the flowerpot she had been engaged with. "I havent any objection to publicity, hack or otherwise," she said mildly. "I am merely impressed again by the invulnerability of newspapers to thousands of important discoveries and inventions, newsworthy 'contributions to Science' as you call them in your bland ignorance of semantics, in contrast to their acute, almost painful sensitivity to any mischance." Gootes, unjointing disproportioned length carelessly against the sink to the peril of several jars of specimens, didnt reply. Instead he fluttered his arms and produced a halfdollar, apparently from Miss Francis' hair, which after exhibiting he prudently pocketed. "Tell me, Dr Francis--" "Miss. Show me how you did that trick." "In a minute, Miss Francis. It's a honey, isnt it? Paid fourbits to a funhouse in Utica, New York, for it. Tell me, how did you come to make your great discovery?" "I was born. I went to school. I read books. I reached maturity. I looked through a microscope." "Yes?" prodded Gootes. "That's all." "Lassie," urged Gootes, underlining the honey of his voice with a tantalizing glimpse of a rapidfire snatching of three colored handkerchiefs out of the air, "tis no sensible course ye follow. Think, gurrl, what the press can do to a recalcitrant lass like yoursel. Ye wouldna like it if tomorrow's paper branded you--and I quote--'an unsexed harpy, a traitor to mankind, a heartless, soulless--'" "Oh, shut up. What do you want to know?" "First," said Gootes briskly, "what is this stuff?" "The Metamorphizer?" He nodded. "You want the chemical formula?" "Wouldnt do me or my readers the least bit of good and you wouldnt give it to me if I asked. Why should you? No, enlighten me in English." "It is a compound on the order of colchicine, acting through the somaplasm of the plant. It is apparently effective only on the family Gramineae, producing a constitutional metabolic change. I have no means of knowing as yet whether this change is transmissible through seed to offspring--" "Hay, wait a minute. 'Producing a constitutional metabolic change.' How do you spell metabolic--never mind, the proofreaders'll catch it. What constitutional change?" "Are you a botanist, young man?" Gootes shook his head. "An agrostologist? Even an agronomist? Then you can't have the slightest idea what I'm talking about." "Maybe not," retorted Gootes, "but one of my readers might. Just give me a rough idea." "Plants absorb certain minerals in suspension. That is, they absorb some and reject others. The Metamorphizer seems to give them the ability to break down even the most stable compound, select what they need, and also fix the inert nitrogen of the air to nourish themselves." "'Themselves,'" repeated Gootes, writing rapidly. "O K. If I get you--which is doubtful--so far it sounds just like a good new fertilizer." "Really? I tried to make myself clear."