bub?" Assemblyman
Brown sneered, "A very unlikely story." Attorney General Smith wanted it
proven in blackandwhite while Senator Jones remarked Miss Francis' taste
was on a level with her scholarship.

She waved the toothpick toward the chairman and politely waited for
either further questions or dismissal. All the while her intense
interest in each gesture of the inquisitors and every facet of the
investigation had not diminished at all. As she sat there patiently, her
eyes darted from one to the other as they consulted and only came to
rest on Senator Jones when he spoke directly to her again.

"And what steps can you take to undo, hum, this?"

"So far, none," admitted Miss Francis, "but since this thing has
happened I have given all my time to experiment hoping in some manner to
reverse the action of the Metamorphizer and evolve a formula whereby the
growth it induced will be inhibited. I cannot say I am even on the right
road yet, for you must recall I have spent my adult life going, as it
were, in one direction and it is now not a matter of merely retracing my
steps, but of starting out for an entirely different destination in a
field where there are no highwaymaps and few compasspoints. I cannot say
I am even optimistic of success, but it is not for want of trying--be
assured of that."

Another semisilence while the committee conferred once more. Finally
Senator Jones spoke in grave and measured tones: "It is a customary
politeness in hearings of this nature to thank the witness for his
helpfulness and cooperation. This courtesy I cannot with any sincerity
extend to you, madam. It seems to me you have proven yourself the
opposite of a good citizen, that you have set yourself up, in your
arrogance, against all logical authority and have presumed to look down
upon the work and methods of men whose standing and ways of procedure
are recognized by all sound people. By your conceit, madam, you have
caused the death of young men, the flower of our state's manhood, who
gave their lives in a vain attempt to destroy what your ignorance
created. If I may be permitted a rather daring and perhaps harsh aside,
I think this should strike you doubly, as a woman who has not brought
forth offspring to carry on the work of our forefathers and as one
who--with doubtful taste--boasts of that sterility. I think the results
of your socalled experiments should chasten you and make you heed the
words of men properly qualified in a fi