h the last hundred years."

"Retired farmers, mostly?" Doak asked.

"Mmmm, I guess. Just--people."

People.... Which meant nothing and everything. Doak had turned away
before he remembered. Then he turned back. "Oh, yes, and Senator
Arnold? Where does he live?"

"Big house, over the hill," the agent said. "Only big house around
here--you can't miss it. Got a high stone fence all around it and two
vicious dogs. God knows what he's scared of." This was a different man
from the one who had remarked on the beauty of the evening.

"Thanks," Doak said. "Thanks again."

Political resentment--or some local feud? Doak went along the platform
to the single step that led to the street.

There was a breeze from the east, cooling the warm air. He turned in
at the drug store and could scarcely believe his eyes.

Bent wire chairs and marble-topped tables with bent wire legs. No
toasters, video sets, geiger counters, ray guns or portable garbage
detergents.

But dim and cool and with a high marble fountain. "A lime-ade," Doak
said, "with a sprig of mint."

The man behind the fountain wore a blue jacket over his white shirt.
He had a thin face and a high-domed head and intelligent blue eyes.

Doak sat on one of the high wire stools and lighted a cigarette. "Hot
day, was it?"

"Hot enough. But we get the night breeze. Stranger in town?"

"From Milwaukee," Doak said. "Out to visit Senator Arnold."

"Oh." The man set the drink in front of Doak.

"Trying to talk him into leaving some money to the University," Doak
added. "Guess he's a pretty hard man to get money from."

"I hear he is. I wouldn't know about it. He--doesn't shop in town."

The drink was freshly flavorful, cool as springwater. Doak rubbed the
beaded moisture with a thumb. "Pretty town," he said. "Pretty country
around here."

"Peaceful," the man agreed. "I've never been anywhere else, so I
couldn't judge it right, I guess--but then I've never had the urge to
go anywhere else, so it must be all right."

"These days," Doak said, "a man doesn't need to go anywhere else. They
bring the world right to you."

"I guess. Hear they're having a hard time getting Venus populated. I
guess people aren't as rootless as the planners figured."

By "the planners" the man undoubtedly meant THAT WASHINGTON CROWD.
Doak finished his drink and went up the street to the grey house with
the blue shutters on the curve.

There was a woman sitting on the front porch, a short