Presently
he had a pocket-full of small stones which would be regarded with
rapture by his nieces and nephews because they had come from the stars.
Actually, they were quite commonplace minerals. The flecks of what
looked like gold were only iron pyrates.
Jones did not leave the ship. He was puttering. Nor Alicia. Holden urged
her to take a walk, and she said quietly:
"Johnny's out with a gun. He's hunting. I don't like to be with Johnny
when he may be disappointed."
She smiled, and Holden sourly went away. There had been no particular
consequences of Johnny Simms' inability to remember what was right and
what was wrong. But Holden felt like a normal man about men whose wives
look patient. Even psychiatrists feel that it is somehow disreputable to
illtreat a woman who doesn't fight back. This attitude is instinctive.
It is what is called the fine, deep-rooted impulse to chivalry which is
one of the prides of modern culture.
Holden settled dourly down at the communicator to get an outgoing call
to Earth, when there were some hundreds of incoming calls backed up. By
sheer obstinacy and bad manners he made it.
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