or it," said
Johnson solemnly.

"That could happen too soon!" Miss Wright's face, honest and open in
its horse-like length, broke into a wide grin.

"Amen," said Hart, adding the private hope that Marie, blessed with
superior looks, might be able to show as much superior wisdom some
day.

* * * * *

The hope was not immediately fulfilled. When he reached home Marie was
in a tizzy of excitement. "You're just in time, darling. They just
caught three subversives. One of them was a woman," she added as this
were compounding an improbability with an impossibility. "They're
going to show them."

He gripped his belt tightly. "A woman?"

"That's right. There she is now."

A uniformed officer was gently helping a pale little old woman sit
down before the camera, as if she were more an object of pity than of
fear. Hart relaxed.

"--caught red-handed with the incriminating papers," shouted an
offstage announcer. "Handbills asserting objects declared obsolescent
could actually last indefinitely!"

"What do you have to say for yourself?" the officer asked gently. "You
must realize, of course, that such irreligious behavior precludes your
moving in general society for a long time to come."

"I don't know what came over me," she sobbed in a tired voice.
"Curiosity. Yes, curiosity, that's what it was. I saw these sheets of
paper in the street and they said we should stop working so hard at
compulsory tasks and start working to expand our own interests and
personalities."

"Self-contradictory nonsense!" said the voice.

"Yes, I know that. But it made me curious and I took it home to read,
and it said our compulsory tasks were artificially manufactured and,
if you didn't believe that, look at the pile that reactivated itself
the other day." She stopped, reorganizing her thoughts. "Of course,
though, that thing in the Plaza was unique, you know. I don't think it
could mean a thing ... unless it happened a few times. And the fact is
it won't ever happen again."

"Well, that much makes very good sense," said Marie. "You said the
same thing, Wendell. I don't think that poor woman knew what she was
doing--just a dupe for subversive propaganda."

"--a dupe for subversive propaganda," the announcer was saying.

"See, exactly what I said."

"Yes, dear."

How swiftly the decentralized underground was working! Hart could not
tell whether the old woman was an active member or just a passive
re