He got up and went into the living room; fighting the stirring in him, the stirring he didn't want to analyze and find absurd. He went into the bathroom and studied his lean, now haggard face. He looked like hell. He went into the back bedroom and smelled her perfume and went quickly from the house and into the backyard. He sat there until seven, listening to the throb from the basement. The molecule agitator should have the flesh firm and finished now, nourished by the select blood, massaged by the pulsating plastic. At seven, she should be ready. At seven, he went down to the basement. His heart should have been hammering and his mind expectant, but he was just another guy going down to the basement. The pumps had stopped, the agitator, the instiller. He felt the mold; it was cool to the touch. He lifted the lid, his mind on Vera for some reason. A beauty. The lid was fully back and his mate sat up, smiled and said, "Hello, Joe." "Hello, Alice. Everything all right?" "Fine." Her hair was a silver blonde, her features a blend of the patrician and the classical. Her figure was neither too slim nor too stout, too flat nor too rounded. Nowhere was there any sag. "Thought we'd drop over to the Harveys' for a drink," Joe said. "Sort of show you off, you know." "Ego gratification, Joe?" "Of course. I've some clothes upstairs for you." "I'm sure they're lovely." "They are lovely." While she dressed, he phoned the Harveys. He explained about Vera first, because Vera was what the Harveys considered a good neighbor. Dan Harvey said sympathetically, "It happens to the best of us. Thinking of getting a new one, Joe?" "I've got one right here. Thought I'd drop over, sort of break the ice." "Great," Dan said. "Fine. Dandy." The event was of minor importance, except for the revelation involved. The Harveys had a gift for putting guests at ease, the gift being a cellar full of thirty-year-old bourbon the elder Harvey had bequeathed them at the end of their adjustment period. The talk moved here and there, over the bourbon, Alice sharing in it rarely, though nodding when Joe was talking. Then, at mention of someone or other, Mrs. Harvey said tolerantly, "Well, none of us are perfect, I guess." Alice smiled and answered, "Some of us are satisfied with mediocrities in marriage." Mrs. Harvey frowned doubtfully. "I don't quite understand, dear. In any marriage, there has to be adjustment. Dan and I, for example, have adjusted very well." "You haven't adjusted," Alice said smilingly. "You've surrendered." Joe coughed up half a glass of bourbon, Dan turned a sort of red-green and Mrs. Harvey stared with her mouth open. Alice smiled. Finally, Mrs. Harvey said, "Well, I never--" "Of all the--" Dan Harvey said. Joe rose and said, "Must get to bed, got to get to bed." "Here?" Alice asked. "No, of course not. Home. Let's go, dear. Have to rush." Alice's smile had nothing sentimental about it. * * * * *