graduate researcher.
But because of the scholarship record I've been able to rack up here I
took a chance on applying to the Corning Foundation for a grant. And
they decided to take a chance on me after considerable and not entirely
painless investigation. That's why you were followed around like a
suspected Disloyalist for a month. My application included a provision
for you to go along as my wife. Professor Fothergill notified me this
morning that the grant had been awarded."

"Cam--" Joyce's voice was brittle now. "You aren't fooling me?"

He gathered her in his arms again. "You think I would fool about
something like that, darling? In a week you'll be Mrs. C. Wilder, and as
soon as school is out, on your way to the Markovian Nucleus. And
besides, it took me almost as much work preparing the research
prospectus as the average guy spends on his whole project!"

* * * * *

Sometimes Joyce Farquhar wished Cameron were a good deal different than
he was. But then he wouldn't have been Cameron, and she wouldn't want to
marry him, she supposed. And somehow, while he fell behind on the
mid-stretch, he always managed to come in at the end with the rest of
the field. Or just a little bit ahead of it.

Or a good deal ahead of it. As now. It took her a few moments to realize
the magnitude of the coup he had actually pulled off. For weeks she had
been depressed because he refused to use some trivial, breeze research
to get his degree. He could have started it as much as a year ago, and
they could have been married now if he'd set himself up a real cinch.

But now they were getting married anyway--and Cameron was getting the
kind of research deal that would satisfy his frantic desire for
integrity in a world where it counted for little, and his wish to
contribute something genuine to the sociological understanding of
sentient creatures.

Their marriage, as was customary, would be a cut and dried affair. A
call to the license bureau, receipt of formal sanction in the mail--she
supposed Cameron had already made application--and a little party with a
few of their closest friends on the campus. She wished she had lived in
the days when getting married was much easier to do, and something to
make a fuss about.

She stirred and sat up, loosening the jacket as the sun came from behind
a puff of cloud. "You could have told me about this a long time ago,
couldn't you?" she said accusingly.

Camero