oundings,
aloof and exquisite. I think I put out my hand, or made some other
reflexive gesture to stop her, but either she failed to notice or
misunderstood. When I finally recovered myself and set out after her,
she had vanished.

I waited for the bus, wondering if I had been victim of an
hallucination....

_59._ In spite of Miss Francis' blindness to her own interest I still
had a prospective superintendent for the gathering and shipping of the
grass: George Thario. Unless his obsession had sent him down into
Mississippi or Louisiana, I expected to find him in Indianapolis.

The short journey west was tedious and uncomfortable, repeating the
pattern of the one southward. At the end of it there was no garrulous
chief dispatcher, for the airport was completely deserted, and I was
thankful for an ample stock of gas for the return flight.

I had no difficulty locating Joe in an immense, highceilinged
furnishedroom in one of the ugliest gray weatherboarded houses, of which
the city, never celebrated for its architecture, could boast. The first
thing to impress me was the room's warmth. For the first time since
landing I did not shiver. A woodfire burned in an open grate and a
kerosene heater smelled obstinately in an opposite corner. A grandpiano
stood in front of the long narrow windows and on it slouched several
thick piles of curlyedged paper.

He greeted me with something resembling affection. "The tycoon himself!
Workers of the world--resume your chains. A W, it's a pleasure to see
you. And looking so smooth and ordinary and unharassed too, at the
moment everyone else is tearing himself with panic or anguish. How do
you do it?"

"I look on the bright side of things, Joe," I answered. "Worry never
helped anybody accomplish anything--and it takes fewer muscles to smile
than to frown."

"You hear that, Florence?"

I had not noticed her when I came in, the original of the snapshot,
sitting placidly in a corner darning socks. I must say the photograph
had done her less than justice, for though she was undoubtedly
commonlooking and sloppy, with heavy breasts and coarse red cheeks and
unconcealedly dyed hair, there was yet about her an air of great
vitality, kindness, and good nature. Parenthetically she acknowledged my
presence with a pleasant smile.

"You hear that? Remind me the next time I am troubled by a transposition
or a solopassage that it takes less muscles to smile than to frown. For
I have got to w