"Visitor!" The door-announcer cried again in its one-word recorded glee.
A large android walked in ahead of a short, perspiring man. The android
announced, "I am Ulysses, the greatest android ever produced. This poor
creature is my old, worn out owner. I am here to find a new, strong,
vigorous owner. Which one of you is interested?"
The door-announcer sang out again and again. In two hours the little
apartment was jammed with human beings and inhuman androids. The
interviewing process no longer involved Raymond alone. It became an
interwoven, complex affair.
The confused, excited melee continued on through the night. It lasted
all through the following day and night, and on into the day after,
when the last guest left with his militaristic android counting cadence
in a loud grating voice.
Raymond mixed a strong drink and collapsed into his chair, muttering to
himself, "How utterly, utterly hopeless. There wasn't a single android
that didn't have some glaring incurable idiosyncrasy that could drive
Paula and me completely out of our minds as easily as our present
mechanized helpmate." He appealed to the cracked ceiling. "What am I
going to do?"