"You," he told her bluntly. "If this delinquency weren't a mental
disorder, I'd prescribe a ten milligram dose of micrograine to be taken
at the first quickening of the pulse prior to excitement. I don't
suppose you really regret your wildness, though, do you, Miss Hanford?"
* * * * *
She shook her head. "No, and I don't really enjoy the whole program
you've laid out for me."
"I'd hardly expect anybody to approve of a program that is calculated
to change their entire personality and character," said Scholar Ross.
"But a bit of common logic will convince you that it is the better
thing. Miss Hanford, you've simply _got_ to conform."
"Why?" she demanded.
"We live in a free world, Miss Hanford, but it is a freedom diluted by
our responsibility to our fellow-man. The density of population here on
Earth is too high to permit rowdy behavior. Laws are not passed simply
to curtail a man's freedom. They are passed to protect the innocent
bystander--who is minding his own business--from the unruly, headstrong
character who doesn't see anything wrong in disposing of empty beer
bottles by dropping them out of his apartment window, and justifying
his behavior by pointing out that it is a hundred-yard walk down the
corridor to the trash chute. When we live so close together that no one
can raise his voice in anger without disturbing his neighbor, then we
have the right to pass laws against such a display of temper. It works
both ways, Miss Hanford. By requiring people to behave themselves, we
ultimately arrive at a social culture in which no one conducts himself
in such a way as to anger his neighbor into violence. Have I made
myself clear?"
"In other words," said Gloria, "if it's fun, hurry up and pass a law
against it!"
"Well, hardly that--" the scholar began.
"Tell me," she interrupted. "How long am I going to be on this
pill-and-lullaby diet?"
"It may be for a long time. In severe cases, it is for the rest of the
patient's life. On the other hand, we have quite a bit of evidence
that your urge to excitement may dwindle with maturity. Oh, we do not
propose to make a pariah out of you. Marriage and motherhood have
settling effects, too."
"My baby--!" cried Mrs. Hanford.
"Your baby," commented Paul Hanford in a very dry voice, "is a college
graduate, twenty years old."
"Nobody's asked my opinion," complained Gloria, swinging her leg and
hiking the hem of her skirt another half-inch above the slender ankle.
"Nobody will. However, Miss Hanford, I shall place your card in the
'eligible' file and have your characteristics checked. I'm sure that
we can find a man who will be acceptable to you--and also to the
department of Domestic Tranquility."
"Humph!"
"Sneer if you will, Miss Hanford. But marriage and motherhood have
taken the 'hell' out of a lot of hell-raisers in the past."