"So--you've made your gesture and until someone convinces me that a bit of selfishness is absolutely wrong--g'wan!" He grinned. "Go to work so that I can stop sounding like a philosopher." Virginia looked at him soberly for some moments. "You don't question the fact that I will grab for the winner?" "We all hope to play a winner, ginger-girl," he said. "Yes, but--" "Virginia, you hope to play a winner. Do you greatly care who really wins so long as all is serene, happy, and peaceful?" "Only one more requisite," she said wistfully, "I'd like to have it remain that way." * * * * * Bronson laughed. "It has been adequately pointed out often enough that the gents who formulated the Declaration of Independence guaranteed only the right to 'pursue' happiness. It is a hopeless quest to seek complete peace and quiet." "Don't talk like that," she said. "I only meant that I'm not too convinced that your idea about Earth Three having something definitely wrong with it--" Ed Bronson reached forward and put one hand on each of her shoulders. "Look, youngster," he said with a smile, "I'm no hero. I'm not imbued with the spirit of altruism and self-righteous self-sacrifice." Virginia looked into his eyes solemnly. "You would have little hesitation before you isolated yourself here on Earth One if--" "Only because I am dead certain that there is something basically wrong with Earth Three." Virginia smiled. "As a not-too-innocent bystander," she said seriously, "I'm little sold either way. Earth Two is doomed. That I know because I saw Earth One. But having been trained to the idea of scientific research, I'm inclined to think that Earth Three with its freedom is the right answer. "Who knows," she continued bitterly, "how many times we might have been close to something that might have led the way to life but were stopped because of an arbitrary decision by someone who felt--by some personal logic--that the phase of science held no answer." "There is one idea," he said half humorously, "that anything taken without a bit of moderation is not too good. Oh, there are exceptions. One can always find something that must not be taken in moderation--honesty or faith, for instance--in order for the best to evolve. But any pendulum swings from extreme to extreme. And you have been living in an order of one extreme. You naturally think the other extreme is better." "You wouldn't be generalizing when you claim that Earth Three is wrong somewhere? That you think that Earth Three is too extreme?" "Extremity, per se, may not be bad," he said. "It is what takes place under extremity that might be dangerous. No, Ginger, I'm baffled right now but you can be certain that, before we get to the end of all this, we'll know the answer." Virginia smiled. "We seem to have come a long way from the original argument."