kills her; even though
she's shaking, clear down to her shoes--scared yellow. Also, she is and
always will be scared half to death of you--she thinks you're some kind
of robot. She's a starry-eyed, soft-headed sissy. A sapadilla. A sucker
for a smooth line of balloon-juice and flapdoodle. No spine; no bottom.
A gutless doll-baby. Strictly a pet--you could no more love her, ever,
than you could a half-grown kitten...."

"That's a _hell_ of a picture!" James broke in savagely. "Even with your
cold-blooded reputation."

"People in love can't be objective, is all. If I saw her through the
same set of filters you do, I'd be in love with her, too. So let's see
if you can use your brain instead of your outraged sensibilities to
answer a hypothetical question. If the foregoing were true, what would
_you_ do, Junior?"

"I'd pass, I guess. I'd have to, if I wanted to look at myself in the
mirror next morning. But that's such an _ungodly_ cockeyed picture,
Clee.... But if that's actually your picture of Brownie--and you're no
part of a liar--just what kind of a woman could you love? If any?"

"Belle."

"_Belle_! Belle _Bellamy_? Hell's flaming furies! That iceberg? That
egomaniac? That Jezebel? She's the hardest-boiled babe that ever went
unhung."

"Right, on all counts. Also she's crooked and treacherous. She's a
ground-and-lofty liar by instinct and training. I could add a lot more.
But she's got brains, ability, and guts--guts enough to supply the
Women's Army Corps. She's got the spine and the bottom and the drive. So
just imagine her thawed out and really shoveling on the coal--blasting
wide open on all forty torches. Back to back with you when you're
surrounded; she wouldn't cave and she wouldn't give. Or wing and
wing--holding the beam come hell or space-warps. Roll that one around on
your tongue, Jim, and give your taste-buds a treat."

"Well, maybe ... if I've got that much imagination ... that's a tough
blueprint to read. I can't quite visualize the finished article.
However, you're as hard as she is--even harder. You've got more of what
it takes. Maybe _you_ can make a Christian out of her. If so, you might
have something; but I'm damned if I can see exactly what. Whatever it
turned out to be, I wouldn't care for any part of it. You could have it
all."

"Exactly; and you can have your Brownie."

"I'm beginning to see. I didn't think you had anything like that in your
chilled-steel carcass. And I want to apo