If Leonard Bilsiter could at that moment have transformed Clovis into a
cockroach and then have stepped on him he would gladly have performed
both operations.




LAURA


"You are not really dying, are you?" asked Amanda.

"I have the doctor's permission to live till Tuesday," said Laura.

"But to-day is Saturday; this is serious!" gasped Amanda.

"I don't know about it being serious; it is certainly Saturday," said
Laura.

"Death is always serious," said Amanda.

"I never said I was going to die. I am presumably going to leave off
being Laura, but I shall go on being something. An animal of some kind,
I suppose. You see, when one hasn't been very good in the life one has
just lived, one reincarnates in some lower organism. And I haven't been
very good, when one comes to think of it. I've been petty and mean and
vindictive and all that sort of thing when circumstances have seemed to
warrant it."

"Circumstances never warrant that sort of thing," said Amanda hastily.