absurd venture is hardly in the
nature of a business proposition, Miss Francis."

"Philanthropic, then."

"I have given fifty thousand pounds to set up nurseryschools right here
in London--"

"So the mothers of the little brats will be free to work in your
factories."

"I have donated ten thousand pounds to Indian famine relief--"

"So that you might cut the wages of your Hindu workers."

"I have subscribed five thousand pounds for sanitation in Szechwan--"

"Thereby lessening absenteeism from sickness among your coolies."

"I will not stoop to answer your insinuations," I said. "I merely
mentioned my gifts to show that my charities are on a worldwide scale
and there is little room in them for the relief of individuals."

"Do you think I come to you for a personal sinecure? I don't ask if you
have no concern outside selfish interest, for the answer is immediate
and obvious; but isnt it to that same selfish interest to protect what
remains of the world? If the other continents go as North America has
gone, will you alone be divinely translated to some extraterrestrial
sphere? And if so, will you take your wealth and power with you?"

"I am supporting three laboratories devoted exclusively to
antigraminous research and anyway the rest of the world is amply
protected by the oceans."

She removed the toothpick in order to laugh unpleasantly. "Once a
salesman always a salesman, Weener. Lie to yourself, deny facts, brazen
it out. The world was safe behind the saltband too, in the days when
Josephine Francis was a quack and charlatan."

"Admitting your great attainments, Miss Francis, the fact remains that
you are a woman and the adventure you propose is hardly one for a lady
to undertake."

"Weener, you are ineffable. I'm not a lady--I'm a chemist."

The conversation deadlocked as I waited for her to go. Oddly enough, in
spite of her sex and the illegality of her proposal, I was inclined to
help her, if she had approached me in a reasonable manner and not with
the uncouth bearing of a superior toward an inferior. If she _could_
find a counteragent, I thought ... if she could find a weapon, then the
possibility of utilizing the Grass as a raw material for food
concentrates, a design still tantalizingly just beyond the reach of our
researchworkers, might be realized. Labor costs would be cut to a
minimum....

I could not let the woman be her own worst enemy; I was big enough to
overlook her unfortunate attit