board boxes and followed her along the brick
walk in the direction of the white, Colonial mansion where his mother
and her two daughters and her current husband lived. George, being a
boy, was allowed in the house only when his mother invited him, or
when he was being shown off to a prospective bride. George was
nineteen, the most acceptable marriage age; because he had a
magnificent build and the reputation for being a good boy, his mother
was rumored to be asking twenty thousand shares for him.

As they passed the rose arbor, his mother dropped on the wooden seat
and drew George down beside her. "I've a surprise for you, George--a
new bidder. Mrs. Harper is thinking about you for her daughter."

"Jenny Harper?" Suddenly his throat was dust dry with excitement.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Georgie?"

"Whatever arrangement you make, Mummy." Jenny Harper was one of the
few outsiders George had occasionally seen as he grew up. She was
approximately his age, a stunning, dark-eyed brunette.

"Jenny and her mother are coming to dinner to talk over a marriage
settlement." Speculatively she ran her hand over the tanned,
muscle-hard curve of his upper arm. "You're anxious to have your own
woman, aren't you, George?"

"So I can begin to work for her, Mummy." That, at least, was the
correct answer, if not an honest one.

"And begin taking the compound every day." His mother smiled. "Oh, I
know you wicked boys! Put on your dress trunks tonight. We want Jenny
to see you at your best."

She got up and strode toward the house again. George followed
respectfully two paces behind her. As they passed beyond the garden
hedge, she saw the old business coupe parked in the delivery court.
Her body stiffened in anger. "Why is your father home so early, may I
ask?" It was an accusation, rather than a question.

"I don't know, Mother. I heard my sisters talking in the yard; I think
he was taken sick at work."

"Sick! Some men never stop pampering themselves."

"They said it was a heart attack or--"

"Ridiculous; he isn't dead, is he? Georgie, this is the last straw. I
intend to trade your father in today on a younger man." She snatched
the two packages from him and stormed into the house.

Since his mother hadn't asked him in, George returned to his
confinement cubicle in the garage. He felt sorry, in an impersonal
way, for the husband his mother was about to dispose of, but otherwise
the fate of the old man was quite norma