'Just a bit, said Blake, jaw aching to keep his teeth from chattering.

'Wool will warm you up, said the senator. 'You don't see it often. Nothing but synthetics any more. You can get it from a mad man who lives in the Scottish hills. Thinks much the way I do — that there still is virtue in staying close to old realities.

'I am sure you're right, said Blake.

'Take this house, said the senator. 'Three centuries old and still as solid as the day that it was built. Built of honest stone and wood. Built by honest workmen… He looked sharply at Blake. 'But here I stand declaiming while you are slowly freezing. Take those stairs off to the right. The first door to the left. That would be my room. You'll find sandals in the closet and I suppose your shorts are soaked as well…

'I'd suppose they are, said Blake.

'You'll find shorts, anything else that you may need in the dresser. The bath is to the right as you go in. It wouldn't hurt a bit if you took ten minutes of a hot tub. Meanwhile I'll have Elaine rustle up some coffee and I'll break out a bottle of good brandy…

'You must not put yourself out, said Blake. 'You have done too much…

'Not a bit of it, said the senator. 'I'm glad that you dropped in.

Clutching the woollen robe, Blake climbed the stairs and went in the first door on the left. Through the door to the right ho saw the white gleam of the tub. That hot bath idea was not too bad, he told himself.

He walked into the bath, dropped the brown robe on top of a hamper and took off the bedraggled robe he wore and dropped it to the floor.

In surprise he glanced down at himself. He was as naked as a jaybird. Somewhere, somehow, he had lost his shorts.

3

The senator was waiting when Blake came back to the big room with the fire. He was sitting in a chair and on the arm of it perched a dark-haired woman.