s.

Zarathustra had re-entered the room and was sitting in the middle of the
floor again. He had not returned empty-handed--or rather,
empty-mouthed--although the object he had brought with him was not the
sort of object dogs generally pick up. It was a rose--

A green rose.

* * * * *

Disbelievingly, Philip leaned forward and took it from the animal's
mouth. Before he had a chance to examine it, however, footsteps sounded
in the next room, and prompted by he knew not what, he thrust the rose
into his suitcoat pocket. An instant later, Judith Darrow came through
the archway bearing a large tray. After setting it down on the coffee
table, she poured two cups of coffee from a little silver pot and
indicated a plate of sandwiches. "Please help yourself," she said.

She sat down in the other chair and sipped her coffee. He had one of the
sandwiches, found that he didn't want any more. Somehow, her proximity,
coupled with her silence, made him feel uncomfortable. "Has your husband
already left for Pfleugersville?" he asked politely.

Her gray-green eyes grew cold. "Yes, he left quite some time ago," she
said. "A year ago, as a matter of fact. But for parts unknown, not
Pfleugersville. Pfleugersville wasn't accessible then, anyway. He had a
brunette on one arm, a redhead on the other, and a pint of Cutty Sark in
his hip pocket."

Philip was distressed. "I ... I didn't mean to pry," he said. "I'm--"

"Sorry? Why should you be? Some men are born to settle down and raise
children and others are born to drink and philander. It's as simple as
that."

"Is it?" something made Philip ask. "Into which category would you say I
fall?"

"You're in a class by yourself." Tiny silver flecks had come into her
eyes, and he realized to his astonishment that they were flecks of
malevolence. "You've never married, but playing the field hasn't made
you one hundred per cent cynical. You're still convinced that somewhere
there is a woman worthy of your devotion. And you're quite right--the
world is full of them."

His face tingled as though she had slapped it, and in a sense, she had.
He restrained his anger with difficulty. "I didn't know that my celibacy
was that noticeable," he said.

"It isn't. I took the liberty of having a private investigator check
into your background. It proved to be unsavory in some respects, as I
implied before, but unlike the backgrounds of the other real-estate
agents I h