time and again—"

"Oh, yes, talk! But I never dreamed you meant it! Everybody talks about going to space."

"But not everyone gets the chance!" His voice was sharp in the still, hot room.

"But only a fool would go!"

"Then I'm a fool." He turned away, and sank down slowly in a chair. "I want it more than anything in the world."

The silence was deafening. When she spoke, her voice was hardly audible. "Then I guess that's all there is to it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you go, we're through. That's all."

Bart blinked, his face pale. I could see his knuckles whitening on the arms of the chair. "Marny, it's only a trip—"

She was shaking her head, and her lower lip trembled. Her voice was weak, and very, very tired. "No, Bart, not just a trip. A dozen trips, or a thousand. It wouldn't make any difference." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Bart. I couldn't do it. Across the country, across the ocean, yes. But space—no, I couldn't."

"But you aren't being reasonable!" he exploded. "You act as though it's the end of everything, as if a trip to Mars was something to get excited about—look, Marny. We love each other—you know that, and I know it, too. We could be married—this week, right away—I wouldn't be going for at least six or eight months—why, I might not even make it at all! The tests aren't over, this was just the first screening, and I could flunk in a hundred thousand different ways—"

"But you'd pass," she burst out. "You know you would. And then you'd go, and go, and go—what kind of marriage would that be? What about a home, or children? Oh, Bart, you know what happened to the others! You'll die, you'll be killed—think of it! You don't know what you'd find out there, and I couldn't stand it—" She looked up at him, and her eyes were full of tears and bitterness. "It wouldn't be a marriage, Bart. It couldn't be."

Bart looked up at me, his eyes pleading. "Tell her, Ben—oh, tell her, somehow—I can't, I don't know how—" He broke off, and walked to the far side of the room, his whole body trembling—"You're not being reasonable," he broke out hotly. 

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