but gosh, he was just about to go to pieces, right while I was talking to him. I could hear him grit his teeth, and I could hear the mike squeak with the grip he had on it. It was awful, Miss Graham."

"Couldn't you have waited? You could have asked me what to do, you know. Men ask our girls to marry them every day; it isn't as if it was a new problem that we hadn't handled before."

"But he needed me, right then. I didn't think he could wait. I had to say I'd marry him, or he'd have been biting pieces out of his mattress."

"I know you did your best, Suzy. Those rules, well, they're not only for his protection, you know. What are you going to do when Whit Clayborne lands, and comes in here to claim his bride? Had you thought of that?"

"Honestly, Miss Graham, I didn't think of anything, except that he needed me at the time. But of course I'll let him go. I'd let him go even if the rules didn't say I had to."

Miss Graham's voice was unexpectedly gentle. "You want to get married, don't you? We could break a rule, just this once."

"Not like that, Miss Graham. Not like that. It wouldn't be fair to hold him to a promise that he made in space. Even if you'd let me do it, I wouldn't marry him. I couldn't live with myself. He doesn't know, well, about me. He wouldn't have loved me if I'd told him. He's never seen me; all he's in love with is a voice that understands how to keep him sane. I wouldn't hold him to that promise, Miss Graham, if he was the last chance to marry that I'd ever have."

Miss Graham was silent for a few moments, then turned to the door.

"You've figured out how to let him know that you won't marry him?"

"I'll tell him when he comes down."

"And you think that just telling him will do the trick, Suzy?"

"The way I'll tell him, it'll stick, oh it'll stick all right." Suzy choked off the last words, and blinked back the tears that seemed to come into her eyes.

"I'm glad you've got it figured out, dear." Miss Graham said approvingly. "His orbit got knocked loose somehow, and he'll be in this evening, to talk things over."

Suzy gasped. "So soon? I mean, well, I've got it sort of figured, but, well," she paused, collecting her thoughts. "As well now as ever, I guess. I'll wait for him."

"Do you think he'd get violent? I could leave a couple of engineers in the closet, or maybe you'd like to have Sheila...."

"No, I can handle him, and I'd rather not have Sheila here when he comes in. I'll handle him. And thank you, Miss Graham."

The door closed on Miss Graham's back, and Suzy began to think of Whit Clayborne.

The door opened slowly, and the pale young airman came into the office on unsteady feet, his hat in his left hand, and a small package tucked under his arm.

"Is this Suzy's office? I mean, will she be in soon? Where can I find her?" The questions came eagerly.

"I'm Suzy."

For a minute the words meant nothing to him. He looked, blankly, round the office, then back to the seated figure.

"You recognize the voice, don't you, Whit?"

He gulped, and the expression drained from his face, leaving it blank, and helpless. Suzy's heart went out to him, as her voice had gone to him through space.

"I know, the wheel chair, the rug to cover my knees, the brace on my arm. There wasn't any other way, Whit. I couldn't tell you. My voice, Whit, was all that counted, up there. Down on earth, other things count, too. Forgive me, Whit."

His head seemed to swim, and his unsteady feet fumbled with the floor as he came to her.

"You could have told me. I'd have loved you, I'd have loved you anyway."

"Would you?" Her face turned away from him as he came to her. "Would you, Whit? Would you have stayed alive for a broken girl like me? Would you have waited out your trip for the sake of a cripple in a wheel chair? I know you, Whit, I know your heart and your soul, and I know you'd have never loved me if I had told you