"

"Tell you what?" Anne asked, coming into the room. Languidly she drew
the door closed behind her and rested against it. "Tell you what?" she
insisted, narrowing milky eyes.

"Mary says she can redeem her contract tomorrow."

Anne's wide mouth curled contemptuously. "Nonsense!"

"It's not," said Mary without turning.

Anne glided sensuously across the room to the bed, her tight fitting
plastic rippling with her tigerish muscles. She sat down.

"He said he'd take me away, this trip," Mary continued. "He'll sign off,
and then we'll both get a ship and go to one of the frontier planets.
Where it won't matter about--all this."

Anne laughed harshly. "My God! You believe _that_?"

"We've both been saving our money," Mary said dreamily. "He's in love
with me. He said so."

"Honey, that's what they all say."

Smiling, Mary turned from the window and leaned backward, stretching.
"You don't know him. He's different."

"They're all the same," Anne said, her mouth twisting bitterly.
"They're just alike. Don't believe any of them."

And Mary said, "With him, it's different. You'll see."

After a moment, Anne said, "That Earthman? That what's-his-name?" Mary
nodded, and Anne brushed an imaginary something off her knee. "An
Earthman," Anne said. "They're the worst of all."

"You don't know him, or you wouldn't say that."

Adele looked away from Anne. "You love him, don't you, Mary?"

"Yes."

"You're a fool," Anne said. "Listen to me. _Love_ a man? God! You'll
see. After him, there'll be another and another, and--just like
Rosy--you'll watch 'em leave you and laugh at you until finally you're
hurt so bad you don't think you can stand being hurt any more, and then
along comes another one, and it starts all over again, and then one
night you take a razor blade and go to the sink and stick out your
throat and...."

"No! No! You're wrong! He's not like the rest!"

Anne leaned back carelessly, resting, propped on one hand. "See. You
know I'm right, already."

"You're not!"

Anne shrugged. "Honey, tell me that tomorrow night."

"I better go take my cake out," Mary said. She fled the room in a swirl
of shimmering glastic.

Anne sneered, "I don't see why Miss Bestris puts up with her the way she
does."

"You're jealous," June said quietly.

Anne did not answer.

"Mary's decent," Adele said. "Maybe that's why. She's from the sticks,
and her parents still come to see her on visiting days, and there's
someth