Gloria ... Gloria Manson!" He turned to George.
"You didn't tell me."

"You mean you didn't know?" Gloria asked, and kissed him affectionately.

"I found out that he didn't. He was back in space at the time we were
married." George said. "I wanted to surprise him." A happy smile
creased his face.

Harmon stared at him. "Oh no!" he said and began to laugh. They watched
him, astonished. He tried to talk. "George ... ha, ha ... Wonderful!" He
convulsed again, struggled to a chair and collapsed. "The boy ..." he
whispered weakly between great whoops.

"The boy? Then you guessed!" The wide smile split George's face again.

"Yes, that smile ... couldn't miss it. But how?" Harmon had recovered.
They went into the living room and sat down to talk.

"So there we were," George concluded, "tanking up on lox and nothing
coming out but smoke. I was getting a bit woozy when Gloria asked me
what time it was.

"I looked at my watch. 'It's midnight,' I said. That did it.

"'Midnight!' she screeched and gave me the green-eyed tiger look. 'Well,
George Turner, maybe you can't think of something ... but I can!'

"About nine in the morning the secretary of the panel called my room at
the hotel. 'The ceremony is at ten, Doctor!' she said. 'We are waiting
for you.'

"Man, what a head I had! You could have pushed the Destruct button and
I'd never have known. Anyway I got to the hospital and there was
Gloria, looking absolutely beautiful. There were press photographers
everywhere. We went through with the ceremony and that was that. Nine
months later, with a lot of sonic booming, Boy America was born. You saw
him today."

"But he looks like you," John protested.

"He should," Gloria said. "He's his."

"But ..." John hesitated. "I don't want to pry, but how can you be
sure?"

Gloria laughed. "Well, I know what we did the first couple of hours
after midnight. You tell him the rest, George."

"There isn't much else to tell," George said. "After the ceremony I gave
her a shot of the specific antiserum as soon as I could get her alone.
Later the committee examined her blood. They found she was pregnant so
nobody even thought of testing for antisperm bodies. Then the boy was
born. Naturally I was a bit concerned. I took blood samples and did
genetic studies. There was no doubt. He was my son."

"And nobody ever suspected?" Harmon asked.

"No," Turner said. "The law prescribes examination before pregnancy but
not afterwards. We w