Free Facial Justice by L. P. Hartley Page B

tell how I feel till I know how I look?" moaned Jael, and then seeing a shadow cross her brother's face she added, "Yes, I feel all right. It hurts me to move, though." "You were very foolish," broke out Joab, with the air of one who had wanted to say this for some time but had for reasons of delicacy refrained. "You might have been killed, and then where should I have been?" "You could easily have found another secretary," said Jael. "It isn't only that, and I'm surprised that you should say so--surprised and hurt. I'm as fond of you as one human unit can or ought to be of another. Believe me, I should miss you as well as your typing. You are necessary to me--more necessary than I am to you, I dare say. To lose you would quite upset the rhythm of my life. Can I say more than that?" "No, indeed," said Jael humbly, for it was perpetually being dinned into them that life consisted of a pattern and a rhythm which must not be disturbed. "I should have... I should have broken the chain. I've always been a weak link, I suppose; but what else can a Failed Alpha be? It's different for men, men Failed Alphas don't have the disabilities that we have; they aren't discriminated against, or hardly at all. That's where the Dictator shows his sex solidarity." "You mustn't say that, even in fun. Darling Dictator." "Darling Dictator," repeated Jael, halfheartedly. "Female human units" went on Joab, "are seventy-seven and one-half per cent more liable to personal vanity than we are." "I know men say that, but I don't believe it," said Jael, rebelliously. "Men may not be as vain as women are, but they're much more conceited." "Conceit is A. S., of course, but vanity is nine times more disruptive. Vanity is the incubator of Envy--" The word slipped out. Joab turned away and performed a token spit in the direction of the beds. To comply with the regulations Jael also screwed her mouth up, but the effort hurt her, and the spit was hardly audible. When they were face to face again, Joab said: "Anyhow you are safe, and that's the great thing. My present secretary, though a good Beta girl, is not efficient and shows distressing signs of--" "What?" asked Jael. "Of... of developing feelings for me which are utterly irrelevant and redundant. It happens in about fifty-one per cent of cases where a woman secretary is employed. Thank goodness you were never fond of me--" "Well, not in that way," Jael said. Joab looked shocked. "That is one reason why I shall be glad to have you back. If I have occasion to criticize your work you don't burst into tears." "When shall I be back?" Perversely, tears pricked Jael's eyelids; perhaps it was suggestion. "You were judged curable in thirty days. There are nine and a half days still to go. But, of course, there is also the question of punitive action--" Jael's heart missed a beat. "But what I did wasn't illegal," she said with spirit. "We were officially allowed to make the expedition." "I agree, it was a marginal action, not a true deviation, and as such would have been overlooked. But you were, I gather, also the ringleader in an act that _was__ illegal. Ringleader in the literal sense. You incited some weaker units to form a ring about that totem tower, that phallic emblem from the bad old days, and... and... look upward. Twenty-three people had to be treated for stiff neck afterward: twenty-three. The Dictator was merciful. That was their only punishment But you--you _seduced__ them." "I didn't," cried Jael indignantly. "I--" "You knew the rule: 'Look at your own height--there is nothing higher.' Why did you disobey?" "Because I felt like it." Joab was horrified. "But only Inspectors can do what they feel like. Except in the abstract, as a dimension, which scientists and others have to take into account--it sometimes comes into my own work, I regret to say--height must be regarded as inadmissible, if not nonexistent." "What will they do to me?" asked Jael, trembling. "No one knows yet. But the Dictator is merciful