"I think so," Phil said. Doctor Farley smiled. "Well, then, think of _me_ as the strong one--the one who needs sympathy as the guardian of something precious. Will you give me your sympathy?" He smiled still. Phil realized that when the A.E.C. man came--when any pretext presented itself--Doctor Farley would throw him to the wolves. "Katherine is not in love with me," Phil said. "But are you with her?" "No. At least ... I don't know." "Then you are." "Aren't you being a bit old-fashioned?" Phil said. * * * * * Farley had abandoned his usual pose of sitting and looking up. He looked down at Phil--in fact, he looked down his nose and past his blond mustache. "I mean," Phil went on, "I think Katherine ought to be the one to decide whether she wants to go on seeing me." "And I disagree." "And I," Phil said, "shall stop seeing her when--and only when--_she_ wants me to! I refuse to be ordered around like this. We're not doing anything wrong!" "I think you're forgetting--" "I'm forgetting nothing!" Phil interrupted. "You're acting as though I were having an affair with your wife, and you're trying to pull rank on me! I don't intend to be browbeaten and threatened!" "I'm not threatening you, my dear man," Farley said, his eyebrows raised. "I ask you as a favor, that's all. I think I know my wife's--mind better than perhaps she does herself. And certainly better than an outsider can." "And you regard me as an outsider?" Phil's voice was loud. "You know perfectly well what I mean!" Farley replied angrily. "You are not her husband and consequently do not know--" "I know her a damn sight better than you do, you stuffed shirt!" Like most blond men, Farley became red very easily. At the moment, he resembled a tomato with yellow hair. "Why, you little--" "_Really!_" At the sound of Katherine's voice, they both swung around. They had been making too much noise to hear her return, and she stood at the open door. "Isn't this a bit undignified?" she said. "I could hear you outside." Farley was breathing heavily. "What brought you back, Katherine?" he asked, finally. She walked past them to the psychiatrical sofa and sat on it without answering the question. She looked as though her mind was on something else--and then, suddenly, startled and intent. _Yes! I am here...._ Neither Phil Kaufman nor Russell Farley heard her--they were intent on avoiding one another's eyes, but they would not have heard her anyway. * * * * * Q. You were right. He knows where the Unity is--if not what it is, yet. A. Oh, he will. Q. Are you so sure? And will you at last admit that we are right? _Unification_--it's the only way ... now. A. (she has her face toward the electron microscope; her blind eyes seem to probe it) One cannot impose it on them. What kind of unity can come from imposition? Q. And are things to go on as they are?