to him, especially when it
was in praise.

"It wasn't too hard," he said depreciatingly. "The main difficulty lay
not with the termite queen nor with the furtive little king of the ants
themselves. Biggest trouble was in getting the potential lovers together
against the bulldog determination of their palace guards. To use force
was out of the question. So I had to trick the guards, smuggle in the
male and keep him hidden under the royal abdomen of his spouse."

She smiled amused. "What a perfect classic; the story of Romeo and
Juliet all over--and with you in the role of the nurse."

Lee blushed still deeper at that. "Yes", he admitted, "I was very much
reminded of that story and my role in it. Only I had to avoid the tragic
end."

"And how did you avoid the Shakespearean end?"

"In the best cloak and dagger manner, Miss Dahlborg. First I made the
guards drunk; that's easy enough with termites. Then I broke into the
chamber where they keep the queen immured. I killed her legitimate
consort and substituted my own candidate after having anointed him with
the genuine termite smell. Finally I re-immured the pair. There are only
little holes in the walls through which the royal family is serviced,
they are never really in touch with their guards. That's why it could
work."

"And thus they lived happy forever afterwards," the girl concluded.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Dahlborg," he said, "there is no such thing as
happiness in the eternal gloom of termite society. But even if not
happy, the match I brought about was definitely blessed. In due course I
became godfather to 30,000 baby ant-termes; I've about 15 million now in
different hybrid strains. Now that I have an inkling of the grandiose
work you are doing over here I am ashamed to mention mine; it's very
small, very insignificant and I still don't see where it comes in."

The girl seemed to cross out those words with an energetic move of her
head. "No," she said, "your work is not small nor is it insignificant;
it is great and contains the most intriguing possibilities."

"Ah!" Scriven interrupted. "I have been waiting for this. I knew that
Oona would hit upon those intriguing possibilities; her's is an
unspoiled intelligence; it penetrates to the core of things. Dr. Lee,
let me begin at the beginning so you will understand just where you and
your work connect with The Brain. The society of the higher insect
states like bees and ants and termites constitutes the ol