ment of an entirely different order.

"If, in 1945, any intelligent military man had been told that the
Japanese city of Hiroshima had been totally destroyed by a bomber
dropping a single bomb, he would be certain that the bomb was a new
and different kind from any ever know before. He would know that, mind
you, without necessarily knowing a great deal about chemistry.

"I don't need to know a devil of a lot about psychotherapy to know
that the process you've been describing is as far beyond the limits of
psychotherapy as the Hiroshima bomb was beyond the limits of
chemistry. Ditto for hypnosis and/or Pavlov's 'conditioned reflex', by
the way.

"Now, just to clear the air, what _is_ it?"

"It has no official name yet," I told him. "To keep within the law, we
have been calling it psychotherapy. If we called it something else,
and admitted that it _isn't_ psychotherapy, the courts couldn't turn
the zanies over to us. But you're right--it is as impossible to
produce the effect by psychotherapy as it is to produce an atomic
explosion by a chemical reaction.

"I've got a hunch that, just as chemistry and nucleonics are both
really branches of physics, so psychotherapy and Brownlee's process
are branches of some higher, more inclusive science--but that doesn't
have a name, either."

"That's as may be," the Duke said, "but I'm happy to know that you're
not deluding yourself that it's any kind of psychotherapy."

"You know," I said, "I kind of like your word _geas_. Because that's
exactly what it seems to be--a _geas_. A hex, an enchantment, if you
wish.

"Did you know that Brownlee was an anthropologist before he turned to
psychology? He has some very interesting stories to tell about hexes
and so on."

"I'll have to hear them one day." His Grace took a pack of cigarettes
from his pocket. "Cigarette?"

"No, thanks. I gave up smoking a few years back."

* * * * *

He puffed his alight. "This _geas_," he said, "reminds me of the fact
that, before the medical profession came up with antibiotics that
would destroy the microorganisms that cause gas gangrene, amputation
was the only method of preventing the death of the patient. It was
crippling, but necessary."

"_No!_" My voice must have been a little too sharp, because he raised
one eyebrow. "The analogy," I went on in a quieter tone, "isn't good
because it gives a distorted picture. Look, Your Grace, you know
what's done to keep a