"Naturally. The requirements of Lucy Hollowell demand an exacting man. At least that's what the Foundation reports." "Then you are giving her serious thought?" * * * * * "None whatever! She's too skinny. If she just had an ounce more meat on her bones, I'd marry her and not even ask her name. But I don't want to live the balance of my days with a female who looks like an animated skeleton, who has to stand twice in the same spot to cast a shadow, who has to drink tomato juice to keep you from looking through her." "How about the woman of the same height who weighs a hundred and twenty-three pounds, four ounces." "A beef-trust like that! Count me out. She'd cast her shadow twice. It would take a week to hug her, a little at a time. She'd shake the house down every time she walked across the floor. Impossible to keep her in clothes. I'd need a nylon and linen factory to supply the material for one outfit. No! I'd rather have a skeleton than a whale." "Then you'll consider Lucy Hollowell?" "I didn't say that. I wouldn't mind taking a look at her from a distance, because if she does fit the other specifications she must be something out of a dream. Too bad she has to be built like a rail." "Not like a rail, Mr. Cornith." "A skeleton then." "Not like a skeleton, either. She is Miss Venus of 2190." "What? You mean, this gawky Lucy Hollowell is the same as that gorgeous bundle of curves and pulchritude?" "Exactly. And now you're interested, huh?" "No. She doesn't meet the specifications." "But you'll let her come over to the laboratory and watch you work, won't you? After all, you meet her requirements." "No! I don't want any walking bean-poles around the laboratory." "But maybe she wouldn't appear just that." "She's underweight." "According to your requirements--only. Thousands of men think she is perfect. And she's going to be mighty disappointed if her dream man--" "Her what?" "Sorry. I forgot you're not the poetic type. She doesn't think of you as her dream man, but she does think of you as being everything she wants in a man. You'll let her come to the laboratory, won't you?" "No." "But she does at least want to see you. Do you know you are the only man out of thousands who exactly meets her requirements? Even to those crinkles in your forehead when you frown. And even to being stubborn about things." "I've got to get back and check those ray-collectors--" "And you'll let her go along with you?" "No." "But she's waiting in the next office, and your requirements call for a woman who has a mind of her own. I think she's--" "Not a mind of her own that makes her determined to have her own way in everything." "Of course not. But I think she's--" "I specified a woman who would not try to wear the pants." "She won't. That is, not yours, anyway. Though you're too big for them. But I think she's going with you to the laboratory." * * * * *