Fool! Didn't he know they were laughing at him? She wanted to tear loose from her whole life. It was trivial. It was everyday. It was gossip and collections and stupid people. She had to tear loose or she would go on and on, all her life, being nothing but--herself. She was too good for that. She was too good for Brendel. He had tricked her and turned into a fattening fool. It was stupid to stay with him. "Aw, come on, kid." She drew herself up very straight and imagined she must look imposing. "I'll ask you all to leave," she said calmly. Gone were the smiles. "I'm closing my grid to public access. I'll ask you to leave immediately." The words came out stiffly and precisely. She imagined she must already be more than just herself. "What the hell!" "Brendel, you may come back when I am gone. I shall not return." She smiled, remotely. "I'm tired of punching your food and going collecting and quarreling and being hit around." "I never hit you hard!" he said indignantly. Lukia stared at him. "Dobble!" "Well, she made me do it. What'm I supposed to do?" "Dobble, you're perfectly justified!" But Lukia's eyes remained on Brendel, bright and greedy. Pollony glared. She would not stay and fight Lukia for Brendel. * * * * * She flung the door open. The two collectors snapped alert. "I want to be alone," she intoned. Brendel eyed her balefully. But he had already noticed Lukia's interest. "Where we gonna go?" "We can go to my live," Lukia said. "I think Dobble deserves her little whim." Brendel could not believe she was not going to fight. "You, kid! You're acting like a kid." Ferren took Brendel's arm. "Don't stoop to conventional pettiness, Brendel." Brendel flushed. "I'm coming back. You're not rooking me out of my collections." He turned abruptly and stepped on the grid. Giving a three-passenger order, he disappeared. Lukia followed. Ferren stepped on, tossed bills to the collectors, and disappeared. Pollony closed the door. She leaned against it, breathing the silence. Then she hurried through the live, setting it in order. She straightened the books Ferren had been examining and found two missing. Even as Lukia was punching dinner and saying all the things designed to make Brendel want Pollony back only briefly, as a point of pride, Pollony was whisking into a brisk trousersuit and wondering how much had piled up in the account where she kept her parents' gifts. Even as Brendel was feeling Lukia's face with his eyes, letting her excitement speak to his own, Pollony was at the bank having her balance marked into her deposit clip. Even as Ferren was smiling and wondering how much the two books would bring, Pollony was rapping at the door of the apartment house in centercity and being told that, yes, Mr. Smith still lived there. Presently Latsker Smith roared around the corner and braked his car. He unfolded from the cockpit. He nodded.