My sense then of all that I had _not_ been, negative as it was, saved my self-esteem: I was, in this, unlike my contemporaries. I had, in youth, lost all respect for the authority of men and since there is no other discernible (the “laws” of nature are only relative and one cannot say for certain that there is a beautiful logic to everything in the universe as long as first principles remain unrevealed ... except of course to the religious who know everything, having faith), I was unencumbered by belief, by reverence for any man or groups of men, living or dead, though their wit and genius often made my days bearable since my capacity for admiration, for aesthetic response was, I think, highly developed even though with Terence I did not know, did not _need_ to know through what wild centuries roves the rose. Yet Clarissa’s including me among the little Hamlets was irritating, and when I joined in the discussion again I was careful to give her no satisfaction; it would have been a partial victory for her if I had denied my generic similarity to my own contemporaries. Paul spoke of practical matters, explaining to us the way he intended to operate in the coming months; and I was given a glimpse of the organization which had spontaneously come into being only a few weeks before. “Hope we can have lunch tomorrow, Gene. I’ll give you a better picture then, the overall picture: and your part in it. Briefly, for now, the organization has been set up as a company under California law with Cave as president and myself, Iris and Clarissa as directors. I’m also secretary-treasurer but only for now. We’re going to need a first-rate financial man to head our campaign fund and I’m working on several possibilities right now.” “What’s the ... company called?” I asked. “Cavites, Inc. We didn’t want to call it anything but that’s the law here and since we intended to raise money we had to have a legal setup.” “Got a nice sound, ah, Cavite,” said Hastings, nodding. “What on earth should we have done if he’d had _your_ name, Paul?” exclaimed Clarissa, to the indignation of both Hastings and Paul. They shut her up quickly. Paul went on in his smooth deep voice, “I’ve had a lot of experience, of course, but this is something completely new for me, a real challenge and one which I’m glad to meet head-on.” “How did you get into it?” I asked. Paul pointed dramatically to Hastings. “Him! He took me to a meeting in Laguna last year. I was sold the first time. _I got the message._”