t
was the date for the wedding, and Jenny settled that very quickly. "I
want my man, Mom," she said, "and I want him now."

Jenny always got what she wanted.

When she and her mother left that evening, she held George's hand in
hers and whispered earnestly, "So they were married and lived happily
ever after. That's the way it's going to be with us, isn't it,
George?"

"It's up to you, Jenny; for as long as you want me."

That was the conventional answer which he was expected to make, but he
saw unmasked disappointment in her face. She wanted something more
genuine, with more of himself in it. He felt suddenly sorry for her,
for the way he was going to use her. She was a pretty girl, even sweet
and innocent--if those words still had any real meaning left after
what his mother's world had done to them. Under other circumstances,
George would have looked forward with keen pleasure to marrying Jenny.
As it was, Jenny Harper was first a symbol of the fakery he intended
to destroy, and after that a woman.

* * * * *

Five days later they were married. In spite of the short engagement,
Mrs. Harper and George's mother managed to put on a splendid show in
the church. George received a business sedan from his mother, the
traditional gift given every bridegroom; and from Mrs. Harper he
received a good job in a company where she was the majority
stockholder. And so, in the customary pageantry and ceremony, George
became Mr. Harper.

"Think of it--Mr. Harper," Jenny sighed, clinging to his arm. "Now
you're really mine, George."

On the church steps the newlyweds posed for photographs--George in the
plain, white trunks which symbolized a first marriage; Jenny in a
dazzling cloud of fluff, suggestively nearly transparent. Then Mrs.
Harper drew Jenny aside and whispered in her daughter's ear: the
traditional telling of the secret. Now Jenny knew where the compound
was manufactured; and for George revenge was within his grasp.

George's mother had arranged for their honeymoon at Memory Lodge, a
resort not far from the Directorate capital in Hollywood. It was the
national capital as well, though everyone conscientiously maintained
the pretense that Washington, with an all-male Congress, still
governed the country. George considered himself lucky that his mother
had chosen Memory Lodge. He had already planned to desert Jenny in the
mountains.

George knew how to drive; his mother had wanted him