here, don't you? Yes, I thought so. I do hope your
secretary's handwriting is legible, it doesn't seem so from this angle.
By the way, did you know that she is prone to staring at the floor? A
spot right next to her desk. The right-hand side. I think I never should
have come here."

Dr. Quink reassured him that he was free to leave at any moment, never
to return. By a longish glance at the wall clock, in fact, Dr. Quink
gave him to understand that he might do so with no hard feelings left
behind. Mr. Fairfield, however, gathered his resources and plunged
forward.

* * * * *

"I think you'll find this a rather interesting case, Doctor. Most
unusual. Of course, I have little notion of the variety of situations
one comes into contact with in your line of work, still I have every
reason to believe this will come as a bit of a shock. I wonder just how
dogmatic you are in your convictions?"

Dr. Quink raised his eyebrows and made no answer; he was desperately
stifling a yawn.

"I mean no intrusion on your religious life, by any means. Not at all.
No, that is the furthest thought from my mind, I assure you. No, I am
concerned at the moment with my wife's problems, meaning no disrespect
to yourself at all, sir. I merely asked, not out of idle curiosity, but
because ... Doctor, I suppose there's no way for it but to explain." He
gestured with his hat toward the desk calendar between him and Quink.
"This is the year 1959, correct? Well, you see, sir, the fact of the
matter is that I just wasn't _born_ in 1959."

He stopped there, and the room relapsed into silence.

Dr. Quink looked at him for a few moments, but no explanatory statement
was forthcoming. Dr. Quink removed his eyeglasses, opened his left
drawer two from the top, removed a white wiper, and wiped his glasses
carefully. Mr. Fairfield waited patiently. Dr. Quink replaced the
glasses. He leaned forward across the desk.

"Mr. Fairfield," he said, "this may come as some shock to you, but _I_
wasn't born this year either."

"You don't understand," Mr. Fairfield wailed. "Oh, I just _knew_ I
shouldn't have come. When I say I wasn't _born_--"

He stopped, at a loss to explain. He wrung his hat in his hands until it
was crumpled probably beyond repair. Then he jumped up, pushed it onto
his head, and quickly walked out of the office. As his back disappeared
from the doorway Margaret's head poked up in its place. She looked quite
start