ce all the way?"

"All the way. I couldn't understand any of them, of course, but I looked
each one squarely in the eye."

"Good girl. And you're still sane."

"As much so as ever ... more so, maybe." She disengaged herself, sat
down on the bed, lighted a cigarette, and smoked half of it. Then she
stood up. "Clee, if anything in the whole universe ever knocked hell out
of anything, that did out of me. I'm going to do something that will
take about ten minutes. Will you wait right here?"

"Of course. Take all the time you want."

* * *

When she came back Garlock leaped to his feet and stared speechlessly.
He could not even whistle. Belle's hair was now its natural deep, rich
chestnut, her lipstick was red, her nails were bare, and she wore a
white shirt and an almost-knee-length crimson skirt.

"Here's what I'm going to do," she said, quietly. "I'm going to be a
plain, ordinary brownette. I'm going to marry you as soon as we land;
registered permanent family. I'm going to have six kids and spoil them
rotten. In short, I have grown up--partly up, at least--too."

"Plain?" he managed, finally. "Ordinary? You? Yes--like a super-nova
going off under a man's feet!" With a visible effort, Garlock pulled
himself together. "I don't need to tell you what a surprise this is, and
can't tell you what it means to me. But you never have said you love me.
Hadn't you better?"

"I'm afraid to. Our next kiss will be different. I'd spoil all this nice
new make-up." She tried to grin in her old-time fashion, but failed. She
sobered, then, and went on with a completely new intensity. "Listen,
Clee. I'm all done--forever--lying and pretending to you. I love you so
much that ... well, there simply aren't any thoughts. And when I think
of how I acted, it hurts--Lord, how it hurts! I don't see how you can
love me at all. It'd take a miracle."

"Miracles happen, then." He put both arms around her, very gently. "For
the first time in my life I'm cutting my screens to zero. Come in."

"What?" For a moment she was unable to believe the thought. Then,
cutting her own shield, she went fully into his mind. "Oh, I didn't dare
hope you could _possibly_ feel.... Oh, this is wonderful, Clee--simply
_wonderful_!"

As the two fully-opened minds met and joined she threw both arms around
him and their embrace tightened as though their bodies were trying to
become as nearly one as were their minds. Finally she pulled h