THE SWAMP WAS UPSIDE DOWN (continued 2)
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Young Barnes looked rebellious. He shook hands again.
"Besides," said Bordman, "there is no better."
Young Barnes marched back toward his ship in the great metal criss-cross of girders which was the landing-grid.
Bordman absently patted his dog as he headed back toward Sandringham's office for his orders to return to his own work.
So Bordman went back to his wife Riki and the job he'd been working on. After that there was another job, and another. He received the high honor of being given the most impossible of the tasks the Survey was forced to do. Which was deeply satisfying. He regretted that he had to become relatively inactive when he became Sector Chief.
But his wife liked it very much. There was assurance, then, that they would be together for always, and Bordman still had his work and she could make—again—a home. When one of his daughters was widowed and came to live with them with her children, Bordman was beautifully contented. Then he had absolutely everything he wanted. As reward for a life-time of work and separation, he had the satisfactions—in his family—that other men enjoyed as a matter of course.
But sometimes he was embarrassed when his juniors were too respectful. He didn't think he rated it.
