She smiled briefly, took the cigarette, and sat down in a large chair, pulling her feet under her. “Lazarus, you reassure me.”
“Don’t you own a mirror, girl?”
“Not that,” she said impatiently. “You yourself. You know that I have passed the reasonable life expectancy of our people-I’ve been expecting to die, been resigned to it, for the past ten years. Yet there you sit . . . years and years o1der than I am. You give me hope.”
He sat up straight. “You expecting to die? Good grief, girl-you look good for another century.”
She made a tired gesture. “Don’t try to jolly me. You know that appearance has nothing to do with it. Lazarus, I don’t want to die!”
Lazarus answered soberly, “I wasn’t trying to kid you, Sis. You simply don’t look like a candidate for corpse.”
She shrugged gracefully. “A matter of biotechniques. I’m holding my appearance at the early thirties.”
“Or less, I’d say. I guess I’m not up on the latest dodges, Mary. You heard me say that I had not attended a get-together for more than a century. As a matter of fact I’ve been completely out of touch with the Families the whole time.”
“Really? May I ask why?”
“A long story and a dull one. What it amounts to is that I got bored with them. I used to be a delegate to the annual meetings. But they got stuffy and set in their ways-or so it seemed to me. So I wandered off. I spent the Interregnum on Venus, mostly. I came back for a while after the Covenant was signed but I don’t suppose I’ve spent two years on Earth since then. I like to move around.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh, tell me about it! I’ve never been out in-deep space. Just Luna City, once.”
“Sure,” he agreed. “Sometime. But I want to hear more about this matter of your appearance. Girl, you sure don’t look your age.”
“I suppose not. Or, rather, of course I don’t. As to how it’s done, I can’t tell you much. Hormones and symbiotics and gland therapy and some psychotherapy-things like that. What it adds up to is that, for members of the Families, senility is postponed and that senescence can be arrested at least cosmetically.” She brooded for a moment. “Once they thought they were on the track of the secret of immortality, the true Fountain of Youth. But it was a mistake. Senility is simply postponed . . . and shortened. About ninety days from the first clear warning-then death from old age.” She shivered. “Of course, most of our cousins don’t wait-a couple of weeks to make certain of the diagnosis, then euthanasia.”
“The hell you say! Well, I won’t go that way. When the Old Boy comes to get me, he’ll have to drag me-and I’ll be kicking and gouging eyes every step of the way!”
She smiled lopsidedly. “It does me good to hear you talk that way. Lazarus, I wouldn’t let my guards down this way with anyone younger than myself. But your example gives me courage.”
“We’ll outlast the lot of ’em, Mary, never you fear. But about the meeting tonight: I haven’t paid any attention to the news and I’ve only recently come earthside-does this chap Ralph Schultz know what he is talking about?”
“I think he must. His grandfather was a brilliant man and so is his father.”
“I take it you know Ralph.”
“Slightly. He is one of my grandchildren.”
“That’s amusing. He looks older than you do.”
“Ralph found it suited him to arrest his appearance at about forty, that’s all. His father was my twenty-seventh child. Ralph must be-let me see-oh, eighty or ninety years younger than I am, at least. At that, he is older than some of my children.”
“You’ve done well by the Families, Mary.”
“I suppose so. But they’ve done well by me, too. I’ve enjoyed having children and the trust benefits for my thirty-odd come to quite a lot. I have every luxury one could want.” She shivered again. “I suppose that’s why I’m in such a funk-I enjoy life.”
“Stop it! I thought my sterling example and boyish grin had cured you of that nonsense.”