Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 57: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION ““Maybe, loved me.” “Oh, well... ..” “You mustn’t blame him. Or me. Nobody’s to blame!” Suddenly she was sitting be- side him, holding his hands, pouring out long-bottled-up words. “Ours was a marriage of good intentions. The best intentions. His and mine. With our minds we loved each other. It was a mutual in- tellectual appreciation. A pale substitute for the thing we both desired. For love is beyond intellect, reason, plan- ning. It is wild and sweet and untramelled A flame es Sita fell silent. Joseph needed no more words. He under- stood now. Their marriage could not have continued on the old basis. Inevitably, in a short time, it would have crumbled. But now, instead, he was getting—and giving— the love about which the poets had rhapsodised these thousands of years. That he was precluded, at least for the time being, from revealing his identity to Sita, seemed a small thing in comparison. “*Yes,” she wassayingfirmly, as they strolled back into the hall. “You really must go now. The garden party was Jacko. But he 56 rather hectic. All those chil- dren! I’m tired now, and I have to write to Joseph tonight.” On the doorstep he turned to embrace her, but she shook her head. **Tomorrow.”’ Her smiling eyes promised him all her kisses from then on. He bid her goodbye light-heartedly. It was so little time to wait for so much. .! Joseph set off down the drive. He strode along jauntily, supremely confident in the future, and the phrase “To morrow at noon’ whirled round and round in his head with the joyous lilt of a love-song. At noon tomorrow, he promised himself, life would really commence. Then, before he reached the lodge gates, he thought of money; and stopped dead. Money ..! Standing under a full moon, his shadow velvet-black on the silvered gravel, he emptied his pockets of notes and coin. He counted. Cursed savagely. Less than five pounds! It wouldn’t gethim—them—very far. From the long-term point of view money was the least comiclooks.conm