"Aging is a nasty process." Leah wrinkled her nose as if she smelled something offensive. "Maybe you can convince him, Mike." "Leah is right, you know," Mike said. "A few years ago I visited the old age home. There's only one left. You'd be surprised at the amount of suffering old people go through before they die; cancer, angina, broken bones, strokes, arthritis. Rejuvenation won't work on extremely old bodies. Longevity has run out." "Why does it have to clip off five years?" worried Howard. "It's the old-age governor they found in the pituitary gland. They can turn it back, but the shock takes off about five years." "Oh, I know what's in the medical articles," Howard growled. "Remember, I've been through here twice before. But the Sun was so warm this morning. It was like seeing everything for the last time. I felt like sitting down and letting everything drift." "That's a sure sign that you really need rejuvenating," said Leah. "After it's over you'll be making me a golf widow again. Won't he, Mike?" "Of course. He'll come out raring to go." Howard looked from Mike to Leah and back at Mike. Age was no match for youth. If love hadn't started between them already, it would soon. * * * * * At the end of the long room, a door opened and two nurses entered, starched and antiseptic. "Your room is ready, Mr. Kent," one nurse said. Howard shuddered. "Everything is so horribly familiar. The pill to erase the worry, which doesn't work. The cart you ride on which makes you feel like a carcass. The little bump as you enter the regeneration room. Then you get a hypodermic and crawl into a long boiler tank." "You're just nervous, dear," said Leah. "A dismal, miasmic cloud settles on your mind and you decide you wouldn't go through it again for anything in the world." Mike put his arm around Leah as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "He'll be all right, my darling." Howard looked at them and then turned wearily to the nurse. "I'm ready." The nurse walked down the long room with the stooped man and disappeared beyond the door. "Did you tell him about us?" asked Mike. "Of course not. What a man doesn't know won't hurt him." "Are you Mrs. Kent?" asked the other nurse who had remained behind. "Yes." "The doctor said to remind you that the fourth time is very dangerous," the nurse said. "You'll have five years and six months without it. But possibly only six months if it should be successful." "Better take the first offer, Leah," said Mike. Leah smiled. "I found a gray hair and a wrinkle this morning, love. Better six months of youth than a thousand years of old age." She went into his arms. "Don't worry about what happens, love. You'll have a lot of fun in the next seventy years." He kissed her and held her closely. "I've got to go now," she said. "I'm so grateful you were able to get the forged birth certificate."