's eyes didn't waver from his. "I remember," she said slowly,
"I remember that I felt as if I could throw conventions into the wind
at the very first time we met. I've always been frank with you, as
much as I could be in my position. So then I don't mind telling you now
that ... I like you immensely, Semper."

As if agitated by some electric shock, Lee's arm tightened around the
girl's waist. "Oona, I have asked you once before to be my wife. You
said you couldn't and I thought it was because you didn't like me well
enough. But now, after what you've just told me, now that we both know
about The Brain and that I wasn't insane in my observations, I'm asking
you again: Be my wife, Oona, and then let's go together--anywhere--away
from all this, to the end of the world."

In the darkness her uplifted white face shone like the moon; there were
two limpid luminous pools in it. All of a sudden they overflowed with
tears streaming down her cheeks. Her mouth half opened, swallowed hard.
There was now nothing left of that "integrated personality", nothing of
the calm and the poise which the younger set of scientists admired so
much. There was only a young woman torn with torment.

"I would have loved to go with you to the end of the world when we were
floating over the Canyon. I would love to go with you a thousand times
more tonight," Lee heard her say and then the gnashing of her teeth as
she continued: "But it cannot be, Semper. It cannot be because my die is
cast, because my fate is made. Did nobody ever tell you? Didn't you even
guess? Howard and I--we've been living together for the past six years.
He's not a very good man; rather beyond good and evil; but then: I feel
that I have got to stick to him now more than ever."

The golden helmet of her hair dropped to Lee's breast. "I'm ashamed,"
she sobbed, "terribly, terribly ashamed, Semper. I've made such a mess
of things, of you and me--such a mess of my whole life."

He buried his face into the fragrance of the golden wave. "It's nothing,
darling," he whispered close to her ear. "It doesn't mean a thing to me;
it's less than a cloud which passes across the face of the moon, and
then it's gone and never will come back...."

She freed herself from his embrace. With both her hands upon his
shoulders she looked straight into his eyes.

"_That is not true, Semper_," she said and there was the fierceness of a
young Viking warrior in the flash of her eyes: "That is not true