As they descended from the roof, Sara said, and her tone was infuriatingly kind and maternal. ‘Now don’t you think that’s a lovely fresh-air nook?’

‘A NOOK!’ was all that Fred could get out.

He really spoke up when they were back in Dr. Janissary’s office:

‘Well, Doctor, I’m glad to have seen your shop. I’m sure you could do a lot for people who are disturbed and puzzled. But I hope you don’t think any of this is for me! Nosir! Well, Sara, let’s skip back to the hotel.’

But Dr. Janissary would not let him go. Presumably there was no law by which he could force Fred to sit there, sweating, yet Fred felt as though a couple of deputies stood behind his chair, ready to spring, while the doctor said amiably:

‘I’m afraid you’re not entirely original or unusual, Mr. Cornplow, in thinking that while we could do something for the other fellow, you’re too clear-headed and self-analytical for us to do anything for YOU. What we strive for here chiefly, perhaps, is to train our friends to understand themselves. People have so many blind spots in their mental steering vision.’

Bluntly, ‘You got any blind spots, too, Doc?’

He felt slightly astonished that Janissary neither hit him nor called for handcuffs, but merely hesitated, ‘Oh yes — yes, of course.’

‘So we can call it quits, eh, Doc?’ (Within, ‘Why can’t you be refined with these highbrows, Fred, and not try to jolly ’em the way you would Cal Tillery?’) ‘Because I certainly hope neither you nor Sara have any idea I’d ever let myself be cooped up here and have somebody try to “do some constructive psychiatric work” with me, as I believe you call it.’

Dr. Janissary did not, thereafter, sound so tolerant as one would have expected in a teacher of toleration:

‘About your condition, my dear Mr. Cornplow . . .’ (‘I’ll be everlastingly doggoned if I’ll let any doggone man say I’ve got a “condition”!’) ‘ . . . there can be no question whatever. You are suffering from disassociation and a toxic condition probably due to drug escapism. And, to scotch one of the commonest lay errors, no one can do anything permanent by the use of his own so-called “will power”. You need the help of trained experts.’

‘You mean nobody at all can get in shape by his own will power?’

‘Oh, there are apparent exceptions.’

‘And maybe I’m an exception! And maybe there’s more’n you think. Because sensible people don’t worry too much about worrying. And maybe a lot of ’em steer clear of you. So, Sara, let’s beat it.’

‘Mr. Cornplow, let me say, in this amiable parting, that in a way I agree with you in your own diagnosis.’

‘Eh? What’s wrong with it, then?’

‘I wouldn’t consider taking your case useless I had complete authority — which I’m afraid you wouldn’t agree to, as you suffer from the very common complaint of thinking you know as much as the doctor! — unless you agreed to stay under control for, at the least, six months.’