* * * * *
"Fortunately, you are right. Burr was essentially a selfish baby. I
can't imagine him spending _his_ life looking for a wife and children
he had lost. In future, Carol, if you must fall in love at all, do it
suddenly. You choose much better that way."
"Yes, I know," she said. "Except for the fact that the wife and
children may interfere. But don't worry, Dad. This time I'm not
quitting my job and moving several million miles away to try to forget."
"There'll be no need for that." His face took on a troubled expression.
"You'll have to face your problem right here."
* * * * *
"You haven't answered _my_ question," said Carol. "Do you really think
you can help him?"
"That isn't an easy one to answer. We'll have to prepare him for a
shock, Carol. A first-class shock. That's why I wanted to be sure you
were in love with him. It may make things easier for him to stand."
"What things?"
Her father hesitated. "Have you ever heard of this L-treatment he
mentioned?"
She shook her head.
"I thought not. Carol," he said, and his voice was unexpectedly full
of compassion, "you're going to have a very sick man on your hands. It
won't be pleasant for either you or me, and it's going to be horrible
for him. But it must be gone through. He must be told."
"For heaven's sake, what is it?"
"The L in L-treatment," he said slowly, "stands for longevity. That
was what he was treated for. But you see now why it was found to be
dangerous and discontinued. The reason you never heard of it is that
it was developed and discarded two hundred years ago. Callendar wasn't
adrift in space for a year or two, as he thinks. He was adrift for two
centuries."
"No! Oh, _no_!"
"That's why the clothes in those pictures seemed odd. They've been in
style and out again half a dozen times, with slight changes each time.
That is why, furthermore, he can't find his wife and children on any of
Jupiter's moons. The moons were first colonized ninety years ago."
"But he says--"
"He'll never see his wife and children again. They've lived their lives
and died and been buried in the past. He should have died with them in
his own time and not lived into ours."
"No," said Carol, "or I'd never have known him."
She was white and trembling, and her father pulled her to him and let
her head rest on his shoulder.
Mr. Marsh said, "Perhaps you're right. I don't know. Anyway, he'll have
to be told. And for your sake, I'd better do the telling."
Carol was silent, and they both thought of the sleeping man who didn't
know that his old life had ended and that a new life was to begin so
painfully in the morning.