lve your problem to sulk out there in the desert
like Achilles in his tent? You know it didn't. You were _not_ through
with civilization be it good or bad. You were _not_ through, as now it
turns out, even with the other sex. That human problem which was the
immediate reason why you left, the one named Ethel, has traveled back
and forth to Reno three or four times and is currently married to one
Padraic O'Conner, a Chicago cop. Don't you think that it was good
riddance when she married old man Carson's son? Do you think your
leaving made one iota of a difference or altered a solution as ordained
by fate?"

"No," he said humbly.

"Then why are you trying that selfsame escapist solution now? Maybe
you're right about The Brain and maybe you're wrong; that I wouldn't
know. I've been working with scientists for too long to rule out
anything as impossible. But that's exactly it. You have not _solved_
this problem one way or another yet, not even to your own satisfaction.
To abandon it now, to flee from it in self preservation; why that would
be almost like desertion in the face of the enemy. You have got to see
this thing through to the end. If it turns out that you are suffering
from a neurosis, there still will be time to do something about it. If
you are right and some machine-god has indeed descended upon this earth,
then it is your plain duty to stay on because you are its prophet
whether you like it or not and would know better how to handle it than
anybody else. Perhaps our mechanized civilization _is_ going to the
dogs; as Scriven suspects and you and maybe I myself. But even so we
cannot abandon it; we belong, we are part of it, we're in it to the
bitter end."

Lee nodded slowly.

"Yes, I see what you mean. Please forgive me, Oona; The Brain, has a
terrific force of attrition, it's been wearing me down--Keeping
everything to myself and thinking that you would shrink from me as from
a madman. Tell me then, what shall I do? Should I tell Scriven or
anybody else about this thing?"

"For heaven's sake, no," she said horrified. "In the first place, Howard
carries an enormous burden at this present time; that Brain power
Extension Bill is going before Congress next week. It simply would be
unfair to bring any new uncertainty into his life when his energy is
already strained to its last ounce. In the second place Howard abhors
anything which smacks of the metaphysical. You have no _proof_, Semper,
and in the absence