saying, "or, how difficult it is! I want him and
his equipment HERE as quickly as possible!"
69 Three days later Swift Dog and most of his laboratory moved in.
Mountain Glory knew she would see very little of Gray Boar. He was on to
something, and would practically have to be forced to sleep and eat
until he finished whatever project it was.
70 For the next few weeks, night after night, she took him his needs in his
laboratory; many nights, she practically dragged him off to bed. Some
days she even urged him into the bathtub. "Maybe YOU don't mind it,"
she argued, "but the rest of us have to live with you!"
71 Gray Boar would often grumble and complain, but Mountain Glory was
one of the few people besides his mother, that could get him to do
anything.
72 One morning as she sat drinking her broth, and watching him and
Swift Dog head off for the laboratory, Mountain Glory felt let down.
The housekeeper, cleaning up the dishes, looked at her. "Sweet child,"
she said, "in The Name of The Wondrous Lords, why don't you tell that
man how you feel? There's no shame in it."
73 "What's the sense?" sighed Mountain Glory. "I'm not a piece of
complicated machinery. I'm a woman, and he doesn't notice women. If
those sweet young things I keep putting on the trains don't spark his
interest, what chance have I got?
74 Even when he's IN the mood, he goes off to the house down the road.
'No permanent commitments,' he said. 'Nothing to interfere with work.'
75 He hardly knows I'm a woman! He still thinks of me as that little
child he pulled out of that hole long ago. The only thing nice he said
to me in the last month was a comment on my article on the new aircraft
designs. It's not my BRAIN I want him to notice, it's the rest of me!"