If, Comstock thought, The Grandfather had been only a man, then all this trouble would not have started, but there was no point in frightening Pat, she was too happy, too bubbling over with excitement, with the news of what a brave new world they were soon to have under the direction of Bowdler, Helen, Grundy, the philosopher, Pat and Comstock. Comstock wondered vaguely what a philosopher was when Pat mentioned it, but that question too was made meaningless by the things he was worried about. Leaning forward, Pat kissed Comstock, and said, "Isn't it wonderful, darling? I'm so excited I can hardly sit still." Then, remembering, she said, "But hurry up, sweetheart, you have to go see The Grandfather...." "Yes." That was going to be his job. He had been using it as a device when he had suggested that the Picaroon beard The Grandfather in his lair. But now it was obvious, he, Comstock, was going to have to do precisely that! CHAPTER 15 Pausing at the door, Comstock turned around to blow a goodbye kiss to Pat. But she had turned with her back to him which may have been the reason that he at first failed to understand the meaning of what she said to him. The words which baffled him were, "Darling, it's all going to be so worth while. It will mean that our child will be born in a world that is worth living in, not this sorry mess through which we have had to struggle." One hand on the door knob, one foot raised, about to proceed out through the doorway, Comstock stood stock still. Then he said, and his voice was quite numb, "Child?" Turning from the window, Pat smiled and said, "Oh, it's too soon to know, but one of the inevitable results of two people of opposite sexes making love is that a child is born, you know." "Child?" he repeated. "Imagine," Pat went on not noticing that her man looked as if he had been pole axed, "Our child will be the first love child born for centuries.... Isn't that exciting?" "Child?" he said for the third time and then fainted. When he came to, Pat said, "I'm sorry, dear, perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it all so abruptly." "We're going to have a child. I'll be a father!" Beaming he took her in his arms and kissed her, for the first time the emotion he felt was a completely different kind of love, minus the lustful feelings that being near her generally engendered. "That is," she said carefully, trying to avoid shocking him again, "we'll have a child if we are successful in what we have been doing." "It's wonderful fun trying, isn't it?" "Ummmm," she said, and kissed him with more fervor. Neither knew how long an R.A. had been framed in the doorway, his shocked face alternately scarlet and then livid. The man croaked, "The Grandfather awaits your presence, Father Comstock."