Both were silent again. Neither looked at the other.
Dr. Farrar started again. "Why did it happen, Tim? What's the trouble
up there? What have we done or not done?"
"They were bored and lonely and useless. Nothing you could have done,
I'm afraid. Others feel the same way. There will have to be some smart
talking at an Association meeting tonight to make them forget it."
Dr. Farrar looked keenly at the old man. "You too, Tim? Do you want to
join Forsythe and Madame?"
Daneshaw looked straight at the doctor. "No, not me. That's why it will
be hard for me to talk to them. I've been enjoying myself the whole
time--sitting back, waiting and watching to see how our problems were
going to be solved, indulging my curiosity about things, looking on
with a rather Jovian amusement and tolerance to see how the young ones
would have to learn how to deal with the old ones when they found out
how many of us there were going to be. I thought I had all the time in
the world to wait, so I've just been taking it easy and having quite a
good time. It's really more my fault than yours."
"It's not your fault, Tim; I suppose it's mine. I thought that my
studies would lose their validity if I stepped in and changed factors
in your way of living. I totally ignored the changes involved in
bringing you all here out of a normal life pattern with nothing but
little diddling make-work substitutes to keep you busy."
"What would you call normal for us? We didn't even diddle before we
came here."
"I should have remembered, though. I did a lot of work on the 'suicide
period' between 60 and 70 seventeen years ago. There were only a couple
hundred of the present Block Nineteener's and new ones coming all the
time to keep things stirred up and interesting. I got so used to having
things change up there every day that I never noticed when it began to
bog down. It was my problem, Tim, and I ignored it."
"Ours, too, Jules. We ought to be responsible adults by now, capable
of working out our own troubles." Daneshaw uncrossed his legs and
sat forward. "But we aren't going to get anywhere sitting here
worrying about which of us is to blame. We've got to cook up something
more important than another kind of pet to keep or another bridge
tournament. Wordsworth was evidently wrong. He should have written
'_Not_ getting and _not_ spending we lay waste our powers.' We ought to
be up to the ears in the work of a lifetime ... a very long lifetime."
His lean hand brushed back unruly white locks.