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 to come and get me at home from amid bevies of brides-maids and the maid-of-honor—that's you, of course. And he wants a best man and who, do you suppose?"

"Who?" asked Alice.

"Dave! Can you beat it?"

"Who?"

"Of course, only if you agree, Alice."

"I don't understand."

"I don't blame you. You have to remember Lan's going to war; he's got to thinking that after rooming four years with Dave, and getting to care more for him than any other man he ever knew or ever will, you can understand that . . ."

"I can understand that," Alice said.

"Oh, I didn't mean to say that. I meant, Lan got to feeling he'd turned down Dave pretty hard when Dave never did anything to him. So when he comes through here, he wants to bring Dave to Rock Island with him. Dave alone, not Fidelia, of course. He thinks Dave will understand and do it—if you don't care."

"I?" said Alice. "You give me that to decide?"

Her breast, which fluttered before, almost collapsed, then swelled violently with the draw of her breath. Why not? Why not have him come where she was and see what power she had?

As a result of her answer, Dave looked up from his desk in the forenoon two days later and saw Lan standing in the door of his office.

Dave leaped up and Lan advanced with his broad,