en you are not
making contact.

Suddenly she swung around on him.

"You pinlighters! You and your damn cats!"

Just as she stamped out, he burst into her mind. He saw himself a
radiant hero, clad in his smooth suede uniform, the pin-set crown
shining like ancient royal jewels around his head. He saw his own
face, handsome and masculine, shining out of her mind. He saw himself
very far away and he saw himself as she hated him.

She hated him in the secrecy of her own mind. She hated him because he
was--she thought--proud, and strange, and rich, better and more
beautiful than people like her.

He cut off the sight of her mind and, as he buried his face in the
pillow, he caught an image of the Lady May.

"She _is_ a cat," he thought. "That's all she is--a _cat_!"

But that was not how his mind saw her--quick beyond all dreams of
speed, sharp, clever, unbelievably graceful, beautiful, wordless and
undemanding.

Where would he ever find a woman who could compare with her?

--CORDWAINER SMITH

[Illustration]

* * * * *

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