llage
idiot, it's no more than right, for unwittingly or not, he opened up the
gates of paradise."

"And you immediately saw to it that no one besides yourselves and a
chosen few would pass through them."

Judith paused beside a white gate. "Yes, that's true," she said. "To
keep our secret, we lived in our old houses while we were settling our
affairs, closing down our few industries and setting up a new monetary
system. In fact, we even kept our ... the children in the dark for fear
that they would talk at school. Suppose, however, we _had_ publicized
our utopia. Can't you imagine the mockery opportunists would have made
out of it? The village we found was large enough to accommodate
ourselves and the few friends, relatives and specialists we asked to
join us, but no larger; and we did, after all, find it in our own back
yard." She placed her hand on the white gate. "This is where I live."

He looked at the house, and it was enchanting. Slightly less enchanting,
but delightful in its own right, was the much smaller house beside it.
Judith pointed toward the latter dwelling and looked at Zarathustra.
"It's almost morning, Zarathustra," she said sternly. "Go to bed this
minute!" She opened the gate so that the little dog could pass through
and raised her eyes to Philip. "Our time is different here," she
explained. And then, "I'm afraid you'll have to hurry if you expect to
make it to my back door before the field dies out."

[Illustration]

He felt suddenly empty. "Dies out?" he repeated numbly.

"Yes. We don't know why, but it's been diminishing in strength ever
since it first came into being, and our 'Moebius-strip scientist' has
predicted that it will cease to exist during the next twenty-four hours.
I guess I don't need to remind you that you have important business on
Earth."

"No," he said, "I guess you don't." His emptiness bowed out before a
wave of bitterness. He had rested his hand on the gate, as close to hers
as he had dared. Now he saw that while it was inches away from hers in
one sense, it was light years away in another. He removed it angrily.
"Business always comes first with you, doesn't it?"

"Yes. Business never lets you down."

"Do you know what I think?" Philip said. "I think that you were the one
who did the selling out, not your husband. I think you sold him out for
a law practice."

Her face turned white as though he had slapped it, and in a sense, he
had. "Good-by," she said, and th