The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Genius, by Con Pederson and Paul Orban

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Title: The Genius

Author: Con Pederson
Paul Orban

Release Date: June 17, 2010 [EBook #32861]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE GENIUS

By Con Pederson

Illustrated by Paul Orban

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science
Fiction May 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _Sethos was a great artist, a talented man, quite possibly
the most famous man of his time and world. But, alas!--there were other
worlds. And is not the grass always greener...?_]

Sethos entered the park. Brown autumn leaves crumpled sharply beneath
his feet, the green grass sank. The sun was nearly gone, and the last of
the children passed him, chattering as they faded into the twilight.
Only one other person remained in the park, and she was waiting for
Sethos.

"Ela," he said. "Have you been here long?"

She touched his cheek with hers in greeting.

"Not at all. I'm in no hurry." She handed him a cigarette as they walked
together, then lit her own and breathed deeply of the scented fumes.
"Nothing special about Matya's parties--unless she has that intriguing
man there again. What's his name? You know--"

"You must mean Andian, the sculptor. The man who built North Square, to
hear him talk. What about him?"

Ela laughed. "He'd never heard of my fluid porcelain. Isn't that silly?
After everyone in West has been overwhelmed with the color effects, he
turns up, a perfect innocent. I showed him pliables."

Smiling, Sethos recalled it was Ela's enthusiasm that had first
attracted him, as it had most of the males in their clique. Then too,
she was beautiful, with startling gold hair and a delicate round face
that always aroused flattery. Tonight he felt especially aware of her
beside him, and the quick b