Part 3

[Footnote 6: "Sunlight, as Sir Isaac Newton discovered, is a combination of the seven colors that compose the spectrum. An object is red because it is so constituted that it reflects the red rays of a beam of sunlight but absorbs all others ... a lily is white because it reflects all the rays ... a buttercup is yellow because it reflects only the yellow rays, absorbing all others ... an object is black because it absorbs all the colors of the spectrum." Gager: _The Plant World_.--ED.]

He shrugged. "So--there you are! And now, darling, if you will allow me, I would like to give you a little anniversary present. The first blue rose ever to be grown--"

But Cap Hanson snatched the bud from his hand feverishly.

"Oh, no, you don't! That there thing goes right back into your fish pond and keeps growin' until we get back to Earth. Which is goin' to be as quick as we can make it, or maybe more so. If you two gotta have an anniversary treat, I'll see to it that Slops whips up a special banquet tonight, complete with champagny-water an' everything. How's that?"

And from the look in Diane's and Lancelot's eyes as they moved toward each other, I guessed it would probably be all right. For when a man and a woman feel that way about each other, they don't really need special dates to celebrate.

Anyhow, Lancelot Biggs had warbled his song of love. "Love sends a little gift of roses." Yeah--_blue_ roses! But what did you expect? That whacky wingding of the spaceways never does anything in a normal way.

Or--does he?