concept of himself that had been fed. "But how did you know, Miss Starre?"

"A girl friend of mine, Miss Davies, works in your office."

"Oh, Miss Davies! She got a Silver Star—"

"Yes, she admires you so much. She has a picture of you, Mr. Kelsey. She told me how you won a Golden Star for being so cooperative."

"We all help one another. Miss Davies is such a wonderfully warm and sympathetic girl. Well, Miss Starre, what a coincidence!"

"Isn't it?"

"Well—maybe you could come in and rest a few minutes. We're watching Tevee."

She nodded quickly. She felt that magnetic force, the clicking communion, the way she had always seen it on Tevee. How easy it was, after all, if you looked right and smiled right and said the correct things.

"Oh, I'd love to!"

Miss Gloria Tonnencourt stood up, and the three of them seemed subdued and softened in the Tevee light. Kelsey said, "Gloria, this is a friend of mine, a really dear friend, Anita Starre."

There was something wrong. It was under the surface, Alice thought, but it was there. Under the smiles, something tense and wrong and dangerous. She had never felt it before, but she felt it now. It was Gloria, the way the smile seemed set on Gloria's face as she said she was very pleased to meet Miss Starre. It had always been there, that smile, so it couldn't go away, but Alice knew that if she were Miss Tonnencourt she would not feel like smiling. No one could smile, she thought, if they were losing their love. Real love you could die of losing.

They all smiled at one another. Kelsey got three drinks and they drank to one another's happiness as though there was no question that there could be anything else in the world but happiness.

Gloria has to do what's right, Alice thought. No matter how painful, she has to do what's right. I'm lucky because she has to do what's right, because she always has to be a good sport about everything.

They chatted together like good sports for a while, talked about the pop tune of the week, the favorite sports hero of the day, the best Quik-Pik book of the hour, the Sky-Splitter, the Roaromatic Roadeater, the Silver and Golden Stars for cooperation, the Blue Stars for communal feeling. The Carnegie 

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