ular structure of the new fiber that bothered him.

The other factor was that Ingrid was still nagging him. Perhaps if
Charles had been able to tell her what he was working on she would
have understood why he was worried. But he didn't tell her, and she
didn't understand.

One day after Charles had come home and eaten, she started an argument
with him about something or other, and in the most heated part of the
battle she had hurled at him the supreme insult.

"Charles," she said, "I think you _look_ different!"

Coupled with the strain that Charles was under, that had been enough
to make him stare at Ingrid for a moment, wheel and stalk out of the
apartment.

After all, to say that one's face was even subtly different--even if
it really was--was an unforgivable insult.

Charles went out for a long, solitary evening walk and ended up at one
of those places that features six varieties of beer, a continuous
floor show and a loud band. Charles was not quite aware of entering,
but once inside, watching the bump-and-grinders who wore nothing but
their name tags, he found it difficult to leave.

The room was just ventilated enough to prevent suffocation, but it was
purposely kept hot and stuffy in the hope that this would induce
thirst on the part of the customers.

When he thought about it later he decided it was undoubtedly the
humidity that had caused the catastrophe, but when it happened he
hadn't the foggiest notion what was going on.

All he knew was that he had signalled a waitress for a third beer, she
had come threading her way between the postage-stamp tables, he had
looked up to give his order, she had looked down impersonally, and
then there was a scream.

It took a moment to realize that the waitress was screaming at him,
and by that time there were shouts from the surrounding tables as
well, and men and women alike were stumbling all over themselves to
get away from Charles.

In no time at all, there was a first-rate riot in progress, then the
lights went out, and Charles had brains enough to fight his way to an
exit and slip into the dark alley outside.

And then Charles inspected himself and realized the horrible truth.

* * * * *

The key concept to Charles' society was expressed in the word
_Standardization_. Standardization had had its beginning in the early
Industrial Revolution, when men first discovered that it was far more
efficient to make a thousand pie