Essentials of Business Law 9th Edition

Anthony Liuzzo Solutions Manual

Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://testbankdeal.com/dow
nload/essentials-of-business-law-9th-edition-anthony-liuzzo-solutions-manual/
Ch 10 – Consideration

Essentials of Business Law, 9th edition

INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL

Chapter 10 Consideration

LESSON OVERVIEW

The previous chapters dealt with the various kinds of agreements. Chapter 9 discusses the

nature and essentials of consideration, and through the use of examples, depicts their

relevance in real life situations. Students will learn that consideration plays an

indispensable role in a contract. Additionally, we explore the essential ingredients that

constitute consideration and the various facets of consideration such as forbearance,

promisor, promisee, pledge, general release, barren promise, preexisting duty, gratuitous

promise, moral consideration, and past consideration. Finally, students’ understanding of

the topics is evaluated through objective-type questions, discussion questions, and case

scenarios. Students are encouraged to conduct their own research through the use of the

Internet and other sources.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

A. THE NATURE OF CONSIDERATION (p. 154)

B. CHARACTERISTICS OF VALID CONSIDERATION (p. 154)
1. Legality of Consideration (pp. 154-55)
2. Adequacy of Consideration (p. 155)
3. Possibility of Performance (p. 155)
C. KINDS OF VALID CONSIDERATION (p. 155)
1. A Promise for a Promise (p. 156)
2. A Promise of Forbearance (p. 156)
3. A Pledge or Subscription (pp. 156-179)

10-1
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

D. CONSIDERATION AND THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE (p. 157)

E. GENERAL RELEASE (pp. 157-158)
F. AGREEMENTS THAT LACK CONSIDERATION (p. 160)
1. Barren Promises (p. 158)
2. Gratuitous Promises (p. 159)
3. Illusory Promise (p. 159)
4. Agreements Supported by Moral Consideration (p. 159)
5. Agreements Supported by Past Consideration (pp. 159-160)
G. CHAPTER SUMMARY (p. 160)
H. CHAPTER ASSESSMENT (pp. 160-166)
1. Matching Key Terms (pp. 160-161)
2. True/False Quiz (pp. 161-162)
3. Discussion Questions (pp. 162-163)
4. Thinking Critically About the Law (pp. 163-164)
5. Case Questions (p. 164)
6. Case Analysis (pp. 165-166)
7. Legal Research (p. 166)

KEY TERMS

Key terms are listed at the beginning of the chapter, posted in the student textbook

margins, and placed in bold in the copy. They are listed here for your quick reference.

▪ forbearance (p. 154) ▪ preexisting duty (p. 158)

▪ promisor (p. 154) ▪ gratuitous promise (p. 158)

▪ promisee (p. 154) ▪ illusory promise (p. 158)

▪ pledge (p. 156) ▪ moral consideration (p. 159)

▪ general release (p. 157-158) ▪ past consideration (p. 159-160)

▪ barren promise (p. 158)

10-2
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The chapter Learning Outcomes will help you and the students discover the concepts and

information that should be understood upon completion of the chapter. You may want to

access the PowerPoint (PPT) slides for Chapter 10 when you begin the study of the

chapter and discuss each Learning Outcomes. Each Learning Outcome will be covered

separately in the Instructor Notes, but they are shown here in total as an overview of the

sections being presented in Chapter 10. The corresponding text page numbers and PPT

slides are listed next to each outcome. These slides should be used to reinforce the main

points of the lecture.

After completing this chapter, the students will be able to:

1. Explain consideration and define forbearance. (p. 154, PPT slide 2)

2. Identify and explain the three essential characteristics of valid consideration. (pp.
154-155, PPT slide 3)
3. Describe the kinds of valid consideration, including (a) a promise for a promise, (b) a
promise of forbearance, and (c) a pledge or subscription. (pp. 155-157, PPT slides 4-
9)
4. Discuss the situations in which the UCC dispenses with the requirement of
consideration in contracts to sell goods. (p. 157, PPT slide 10)
5. Define the term general release. (pp. 157-158, PPT slide 11)
6. Identify four kinds of agreements that lack consideration. (pp. 158-160, PPT slide 12-
17)

10-3
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

LECTURE OUTLINE

A. THE NATURE OF CONSIDERATION

Consideration means a promise made by each party to a contract either to give
up something of value that he or she has a legal right to keep, or to do something
that he or she is not otherwise legally required to do.The promise to refrain from
doing something that a party has a legal right to do, or the promise of inaction, is
known as forbearance. A party who makes a promise, the promisor, may make a
promise to pay a sum of money to another party, the promisee, for the
performance of a certain act.
B. CHARACTERISTICS OF VALID CONSIDERATION
There are three essential characteristics of valid consideration: (1) legality, (2)
adequacy, and (3) the possibility of performance.
1. Legality of consideration
A valid contract does not exist if the consideration is a promise to perform
an illegal act, or to avoid performing an act that is legally required to be
performed.
2. Adequacy of consideration
The law assumes that, as long as no undue pressure was brought to bear,
the parties were free to reject a proposed unfair contract.
3. Possibility of performance
A legally enforceable contract cannot be based on a promise that is
impossible to fulfill. A party who promises to do something that is merely
difficult to perform, or poses unforeseen expenses, is still bound by the
terms of the contract.
C. KINDS OF VALID CONSIDERATION
Consideration required in an enforceable contract can take various forms such as
exchange of promises, forbearance, and pledges or subscriptions.
1. A Promise for a Promise

10-4
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

The most common form of valid consideration is the promise of money by

one party for the promise of an act by another. The mere promise to act is
usually deemed valid consideration.
2. A Promise of Forbearance
Valid consideration is not necessarily either the performance of an act or
the payment of money. One party to a contract may, for a variety of
reasons, wish to exchange his or her promise to pay money for a promise
of inaction from the other party.
3. A Pledge or Subscription
Churches, temples, mosques, hospitals, colleges, cultural institutions,
charitable organizations, and other groups frequently raise money by
asking for a pledge.
As pledges are usually for some worthy cause, the courts have held that
they are enforceable.
D. CONSIDERATION AND THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE
In some cases that involve contracts to sell goods, the Uniform Commercial
Code dispenses with the requirement of consideration in certain contracts that
involve any of the following:
• A merchant’s written firm offer that provides that the contract is irrevocable
• A written discharge of a claim for an alleged breach of contract
• Modifications of existing contracts (UCC 2-209)
E. GENERAL RELEASE
The Uniform Commercial Code provides that “any claim or right arising out of an
alleged breach can be discharged in whole or in part without consideration by a
written waiver or renunciation signed and delivered by the aggrieved party.” Such
a written agreement is called a general release.
F. AGREEMENTS THAT LACK CONSIDERATION
Certain agreements are not enforceable because they lack consideration.
1. Barren Promises

10-5
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

A promise to do something that one is already required to do either by law

or by contract represents no additional sacrifice and is not valid
consideration. A promise to pay an existing debt or to obey the law, or a
similar promise, is called a barren promise; and the obligation to perform
acts already required is known as a preexisting duty.
2. Gratuitous Promises
A person who makes a promise without requiring some benefit in return
has made a gratuitous promise. Agreements based on such one-sided
promises are generally not enforceable.
3. Illusory Promise
An illusory promise consists of an indefinite, open-ended statement
purporting to be an agreement. An illusory promise is neither
consideration nor an enforceable agreement. A person who makes an
illusory promise never commits to a specific or absolute act.
4. Agreements Supported by Moral Consideration
A person is not legally bound to do what he or she may feel obligated to
do because of love, friendship, honor, sympathy, conscience, or some
other moral consideration.
5. Agreements Supported by Past Consideration
Past consideration is a promise to repay someone for a benefit after it has
been received. Such a promise is generally not valid consideration and is
considered a gratuitous promise, except in cases such as described in the
discussion of moral consideration.

10-6
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

INSTRUCTOR NOTES
A resulting answer or explanation is provided below for each Learning Outcome in
Chapter 10. Every outcome is also mapped to corresponding text page numbers, PPT
slides, and relevant chapter assessment exercises and activities for ease of reference and
use.
LO1. Explain consideration and define forbearance.
Consideration is the promises exchanged by the parties to a contract: either to
give up something of value they have a legal right to keep; to do something they
are not otherwise legally required to do; or to refrain from an action. The promise
to refrain from doing something that a party has a legal right to do, or the promise
of inaction, is known as forbearance.
Text Pages: 154
PowerPoint: Slide 2
Discussion Questions: 26
Think Critically About the Law: 35
Case Questions: 38

LO2. Identify and explain the three essential characteristics of valid consideration.
The three essential characteristics of valid consideration are (a) legality—a valid
contract does not exist if the consideration is a promise to perform an illegal act,
or to avoid performing an act that is legally required to be performed; (b)
adequacy—many consumer statutes have now been passed and unconscionable
contracts and contracts of adhesion are no longer enforced; and (c) the possibility
of performance—a legally enforceable contract cannot be based on a promise that
is impossible to fulfill.
Text Pages: 154-155
PowerPoint: Slide 3
Discussion Questions: 27, 28, 30
Thinking Critically About the Law: 33, 34, 35
Case Questions: 37, 38 39
Case Analysis: 41. 42

LO3. Describe the kinds of valid consideration, including (a) a promise for a promise,
(b) a promise of forbearance, and (c) a pledge or subscription.
Consideration can be based on a promise being exchanged for another promise. It
also can be based on forbearance, a party’s promise not to do something he or she
has a legal right to do. A third kind of valid consideration is a pledge, or
subscription (a promise to make a donation).
Text Pages: 155-157
PowerPoint: Slides 4- 9
True/False Quiz 13
10-7
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

Thinking Critically About the Law: 34, 35

Case Questions: 39
Case Analysis: 41-43

LO4. Discuss the situations in which the UCC dispenses with the requirement of
consideration in contracts to sell goods.
The UCC dispenses with the requirement of consideration in contracts to sell
goods in the following situations: (a) a merchant’s written firm offer that provides
that the contract is irrevocable, (b) a written discharge of a claim for an alleged
breach of contract, and (c) modifications of existing contracts.
Text Pages: 157
PowerPoint: Slide 10

LO5. Define the term general release.

A person who has a claim against another may give up, or release, his or her claim
without an exchange of consideration by making a written statement to that effect.
An example of a general release appears in Figure 9.1.
Text Pages: 157-158
PowerPoint: Slide 11

LO6. Identify four kinds of agreements that lack consideration.

Four kinds of agreements that lack consideration are (a) barren promises, (b)
gratuitous promises, (c) agreements supported by moral consideration, and (d)
agreements supported by past consideration.
Text Pages: 158-1660
PowerPoint: Slides 12-17
Discussion Questions: 29

10-8
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

Chapter 10 Assessment Answers

Matching Key Terms

1. b 4. d 7. g 10. j

2. f 5. h 8. c

3. a 6. i 9. e

True/False Quiz

11. T 14. F 17. F 20. F 23. F

12. T 15. T 18. F 21. T 24. T

13. T 16. F 19. T 22. F 25. F

Discussion Questions
26. If a promise of forbearance has value to one of the parties of a contract, it would
satisfy the legal requirements of consideration.
27. The three characteristics of valid consideration are (1) legality of consideration,
(2) adequacy of consideration, and (3) possibility of performance. An example is
the case of Jones and Smith. They agreed that Jones would paint Smith’s house,
and Smith would pay Jones $1,000. The legality is seen in the exchange of
promises. The work to be performed was legal, the amount to be paid was
adequate, and painting Smith’s house was possible for Jones.
28. In the past, the courts generally made no attempt to judge the adequacy of
consideration until spurred by consumer protection statutes. Now the notions of
unconscionable contracts and contracts of adhesion are more widely applied.
29. Agreements that lack consideration include agreements based on barren promises,
gratuitous promises, moral consideration, and past consideration.
30. The law assumed that, provided no undue pressure was used, the parties were free
to reject an unfair offer.
31. In an attempt to level the playing field, many consumer protection statutes have
been enacted to address unconscionable contracts (contracts that are shockingly
unfair and unjust) and contracts of adhesion (contracts where the parties have
unequal bargaining power).

Thinking Critically About the Law

10-9
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

32. Consideration based on a promise for a promise facilitates the execution of a

contract because it clearly defines specifics of duties and payment. Consideration
based on forbearance may hinder the execution of a contract because of the
difficulty in monitoring nonperformance as promised.
33. Students will probably find it amusing to suggest any number of illegal activities
such as gambling, prostitution, and so on.
34. Most commercial activity is based on the expectation of future actions. While
possibly difficult to assess, there is no assurance that consideration based only on
completed actions might result in fewer disputes.
35. Promises of various kinds are acceptable consideration because they offer
something of value. An offer to refrain from acting can be as valuable as a
promise to perform some action.
36. Many contracts that people sign may be legally binding. However, if formulated
on the basis of ethics, contracts would ensure that the parties negotiate from
positions of equal bargaining power.
Case Questions

37. a. N b. N c. N

38. a. N b. Y c. Y

39. a. N b. N c. N

Case Analysis
40. Principle of law: The courts normally do not attempt to rule on the adequacy of
consideration, except in the case of unconscionable contracts.
Decision: There was sufficient evidence in this case for the court to rule that the
consideration was grossly inadequate, and there was evidence of a confidential
relationship because of the widow’s reliance on her brother’s assistance in
financial affairs.
41. Principle of law: Consideration is the exchange of promises.
Decision: Appeal denied. The decision rested on the fact that Sears kept their
promise, which was to provide Forrer with “permanent employment,” but the
duration was not specified in the promise. This case illustrates the need for
precision and completeness in contract wording.
42. Principle of law: Consideration was represented by the exchange of promises.
Decision: Spring Well would collect their fee because the consideration they
promised was to drill the well and not necessarily to bring in an active well.

10-10
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Ch 10 – Consideration

43. Principle of law: Pledges and subscriptions are considered legally acceptable
consideration.
Decision: Judgment for Maitland.

BONUS ACTIVITIES

• Have students locate various types of contracts that contain all six elements of a

contract. Discuss the contracts in class, and have students point out what portion

of the agreement is the consideration.

• Have students use the Internet to locate articles about illusory contracts. Ask

them to bring the articles to class and select several for discussion.

10-11
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pilgrims' project
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Pilgrims' project

Author: Robert F. Young

Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller

Release date: September 14, 2023 [eBook #71646]

Language: English

Original publication: New York, NY: Royal Publications, Inc, 1957

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PILGRIMS'

PROJECT ***
 PILGRIMS' PROJECT

By ROBERT F. YOUNG

Illustrated by EMSH

A man under sentence of marriage

would be lucky to have a girl like
Julia assigned to him—or would he?

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Infinity June 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Robert F. Young works in a machine shop by day, and at night goes
home and writes anti-machine stories! Pilgrims Project is different:
not so much anti-machine per se, it is still a vigorous argument in
favor of the individual human spirit and against standardization. It is
also, of course, a thoroughly exciting story—with one of the most
intriguing villains in all sf!
 CHAPTER I
"I'd like to apply for a wife," I said.
The Marriage Administration girl inserted an application blank into the
talk-typer on her desk. Her eyes were light blue and her hair was dark
brown and she was wearing a Mayflower dress with a starched white
collar.
"Name and number?"
"Roger Bartlett. 14479201-B."
"Date of birth?"
"January 17, 2122."
"What is your occupation, Mr. Bartlett?"
"Senior Sentry at the Cadillac Cemetery."
She raised her eyes. Her hair was combed tightly back into a chignon
and her face looked round and full like a little girl's.
"Oh. Have there been any exhumings recently, Mr. Bartlett?"
"Not at Cadillac," I said.
"I'm glad. I think it's a shame the way the ghouls carry on, don't you?
Imagine anyone having the effrontery to rob a sacred car-grave!"
Her voice sounded sincere enough but I got the impression she was
ridiculing me—why, I couldn't imagine. She could not know I was
lying.
"Some day they'll rob one grave too many," I said flatly, "and earn the
privilege of digging their own."
She lowered her eyes—rather abruptly, I thought. "Last place of
employment?"
"Ford Acres."
The longer I looked at her, the more she affected me. The little-girl
aspect of her face was misleading. There was nothing little-girlish
about her lithe body, and her stern, high-bosomed dress could not
conceal the burgeoning of full breasts or the breathless sweep of
waist and shoulders.
Illogically, she reminded me of a landscape I had seen recently at a
clandestine art exhibit. I had wandered into the dim and dismal place
more out of boredom than curiosity, and I had hardly gone two steps
beyond the cellar door when the painting caught my eye. It was called
"Twentieth Century Landscape."
In the foreground, a blue river flowed, and beyond the river a flower-
flecked meadow spread out to a series of small, forested hills.
Beyond the hills a great cumulus formation towered into the sky like
an impossibly tall and immaculate mountain. There was only one
other object in the scene—the lofty, lonely speck of a soaring bird.
An impossible landscape by twenty-second century standards; an
impossible analogy by any standards. And yet that's what I thought
of, standing there in Marriage Administration Headquarters, the stone
supporting pillars encircling me like the petrified trunks of a
decapitated forest and the unwalled departments buzzing with
activity.
"Can you give us some idea of the kind of wife you want, Mr.
Bartlett?"
I wanted to say that I didn't want any kind of a wife, that the only
reason I was applying for one was because I was on the wrong side
of twenty-nine and had received my marriage summons in
yesterday's mail. But I didn't say anything of the sort. It wasn't wise to
question Marriage Administration procedure.
But I didn't take it lying down. Not quite. I said: "The wife I want is a
pretty remote item from the one I'll probably get."
"What we want consciously is invariably different from what we want
unconsciously, Mr. Bartlett. The Marriage Integrator's true benefit to
humanity arises from the fact that it matches marriageable men and
women in accordance with their unconscious rather than with their
conscious desires. However, any information you may care to impart
will be entered on your data card and might influence the final
decision."
"I don't know," I said.
And I didn't. The celibacy I had endured rather than apply for a wife
before reaching the maximum age of twenty-nine had resulted in the
total sublimation of my sexual desires. Women had lost reality for me
—at least, until this morning.

I looked around the huge chamber in search of inspiration. The

various departments were cramped with desks and marriage officials,
enlivened here and there by gray- or black-garbed secretaries. The
department next to the one in which I stood constituted the
headquarters for the Marriage Enforcement Police and less than ten
feet away from me a gaunt MEP captain brooded behind an austere
marble desk.
Apparently he had been fasting, for his charcoal gray coat hung
loosely on his wide shoulders. His cheeks were cadaverous, his thin
lips pale. His thin nose jutted sharply from his narrow face, giving him
a bleak, hungry look, and his deep, somber eyes intensified the
impression.
Those eyes, I realized suddenly, were gazing directly into mine.
So far as I knew, there was nothing about my appearance to pique
the interest of an MEP official. My Roger Williams suit was
conventional enough; I had doffed my black, wide-brimmed hat upon
entering the building and now held it at my waist in the prescribed
manner; I was above average in height, but not noticeably so, and if
my yellow hair and gray eyes failed to match the dour decorum of my
clothing, I could hardly be held responsible for the defection.
Nevertheless, there was something about me that the MEP captain
found disagreeable. The disapproval in his eyes was unmistakable.
"Do you have any ideas at all, Mr. Bartlett?"
The girl's cool blue eyes were a relief after the somber brown ones. It
was like returning from Milton's Paradise Lost to the carefree
L'Allegro of his youth. Abruptly, the inspiration I'd been searching for
materialized—almost at my fingertips.
"Blue eyes," I said. "I'd definitely want her to have blue eyes—and
dark brown hair to go with them. And then I'd want her to have a
round, full face, and shoulders that look good even in a Mayflower
dress."
I saw the telltale pinkness come into her cheeks and I caught the tiny
fluttering of a pulse in her white temple. But all she said was: "What
else, Mr. Bartlett? I presume she would have intellectual as well as
physical qualities."
"Naturally." I knew I was being presumptuous, that I was probably
violating some of the law-enforced mores of the Age of Repentance.
But for once in my life I felt reckless.
I concentrated on the piquant face before me. "I'd want her to be a
little on the sophisticated side," I said softly (the MEP captain had big
ears). "Well-versed in the Five Books of course—and perhaps
acquainted with one or two of the forbidden ones. And then I'd want
her to like children and maybe be willing to have three—or even four
—instead of one or none. But most of all I'd want her to be able to
freeze any wrong thoughts a man might have about her, not by
recourse to the law, or by saying or doing anything; but just by looking
the way she does, by being the way she is—if you know what I
mean."
The pinkness of her cheeks had darkened to deep rose. "Is that all,
Mr. Bartlett?"
I sighed. My recklessness had netted me nothing. "Yes," I said.
She withdrew the application from the talk-typer and initialed it. She
raised her eyes. "I censored your reference to the forbidden books,"
she said. "It would have rated you at least two years in Purgatory if
the Marriage Administrator had seen it. You really should be more
careful about what you say, Mr. Bartlett."
I'd forgotten all about the meticulous little machine tap-tapping silently
away on the desk. I felt like a fool. "Thanks," I said.
"One of the reverend psychiatrists will interview you on the top floor.
You'll find a waiting room at the head of the staircase."
I started to turn, then paused. I didn't know why I paused; I only knew
that I couldn't let it end like that.
"I wonder," I said.
"Yes?"
"You obtained a lot of information from me but I don't know a single
thing about you. Not even your name."
The blue eyes had become arctic lakes. Then, suddenly, they filled
with the sparkling warmth of spring. A smile dawned on her lips and
her face became a sunrise.
"Julia," she said. "Julia Prentice."
"I'm glad to have known you," I said.
"And I, you, Mr. Bartlett. And now if you'll please excuse me, there
are other applicants waiting."
There were—a whole benchful of them. I walked past them glumly,
hating them, hating myself, hating a society that would not permit me
to choose my own mate; but most of all hating Big Cupid, the
mechanized matchmaker that would choose for me.
I paused at the foot of the stone staircase, turned for a final look at
Julia. She was interviewing the next applicant. She had forgotten me
already.
But someone else in the departmented chamber hadn't. The gaunt
MEP captain was more absorbed in me than ever. And, judging from
his expression, he no longer merely disapproved of me—he despised
me.
Why? Had he overheard my conversation with Julia? I did not think
so. With the confused murmur of hundreds of other voices all around
him, he could scarcely have singled out mine, especially in view of
the fact that I had spoken softly.
But perhaps not softly enough. In any event, he was looking at me as
though I were a hopeless habitué of Vanity Fair desperately in need
of an Evangelist. I felt like walking over to his desk and asking him
the way to the Coelestial City. But I didn't. You don't make flippant
remarks to MEP officers, particularly when those remarks involve one
of the Five Books. You don't, if you want to stay out of Purgatory.
Instead, I turned and started up the stairs to the eyrie of the reverend
psychiatrists.
 CHAPTER II
It was late afternoon by the time I got out of the Marriage
Administration Building. The sun, red and swollen from the spring
dust storms, was just disappearing behind the distant elevators of the
plankton conversion plant, and the sky was beginning to lose its
coppery haze. I hailed a rickshaw, leaned back in the plastic chair
and let the June wind cool my face.
The street murmured with the whir of rickshaw wheels and the
rhythmic pounding of runners' feet. The Marriage Administration
Building faded into the lengthening shadows. The Cathedral drifted
grayly by, the tiny windows of its serried chapels glinting red in the
final rays of the sun. Then the massive pile of the Coliseum, silent
and somber and brooding. In the distance, the hives towered darkly
into the sky.
The Coliseum gave way to the parsonage apartments. Prim façades
frowned down on me with narrow-windowed righteousness. I shifted
uneasily in my rickshaw seat. If my surreptitious reading of the
forbidden books had given me a new perspective on the Age of
Repentance, it had also given me a troubled conscience.
Just the same, I knew that as soon as the next book "collection" got
under way, I would offer my services to the Literature Police just as I'd
done a dozen times before. And if my luck held, and I was assigned
to sentry duty in the book dump, I would read just as many forbidden
volumes as I could every time I got the chance. Moreover, this time I
would risk Purgatory and try to save a few of them from the flames.
The parsonage apartments petered out and the noisome market area
took their place. Rickshaw traffic densened, competed with hurrying
pedestrians. Plastic heels clacked and ankle-length skirts swished in
the gloom. The hives occulted the sky now, and the stench of
cramped humanity rode the night wind.
I dropped a steelpiece into the runner's hand when he pulled up
before my hive. I tipped him a plastic quarter when he handed me my
change. I could feel the loneliness already, the crushing loneliness
that comes to all men who live in faceless crowds.
But I didn't regret having come to the hives to live. They were no
lonelier than the YMCA had been. And three rooms, no matter how
small, were certainly preferable to the cramped little cubicle I had
occupied during the years immediately following my parents' suicide.
A long time ago—a century perhaps, maybe more—the hives bore
the more euphemistic name of "apartment houses." But they had
corridors then instead of yard-wide passageways, elevators instead
of narrow stairways, rooms instead of roomettes. Those were the
years before the metal crisis, before the population upsurge; the
years that constituted the Age of Wanton Waste.
Deploring the appetites of one's ancestors is a frustrating pastime. I
did not indulge in it now. Climbing the four flights of stairs to my
apartment, I thought instead of my imminent marriage, hoping to take
the edge off my loneliness.
I concentrated on my wife-to-be. A wife, according to the pamphlet
that had accompanied my marriage summons, guaranteed to be my
ideal mate, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. A wife who
would personify my unconscious conception of a goddess, who would
fulfill my unconscious standards of feminine beauty, who would
administer faithfully to my unconscious emotional needs. In short, just
exactly the kind of woman I had unconsciously wanted all my
miserable lonely life.
I tried to picture her. I threw everything out of my mind and left my
mental retina blank. It did not remain blank for long. Gradually, the
twentieth century landscape came into focus—the river flowing in the
foreground, bluer than before, the green sea of the meadow
spreading out to the exquisite forested hills, the impeccable cumulus
mountain, and finally, the solitary bird soaring in the vast sky....
I prepared and ate a frugal meal in the kitchenette, then I shaved,
went into the bedroomette and changed into my sentry suit. I was
combing my shoulder-length hair when the knock on the door
sounded.
I waited, listening for the knock to sound again. I knew practically no
one in the city, save the members of my own guard detail, and it was
unlikely that any of them would visit me. They saw enough of me on
the graveyard shift.
Who, then?
The knock sounded again, rising unmistakably above the background
noises of the hive—the dull clatter of plastic pots and pans and
dishes, the nagging voices of wives, the strident ones of husbands,
and the whining of children. I laid down my comb, left the
bedroomette, stepped across the parlorette, opened the door—and
stepped back involuntarily.
The MEP captain had been seated when I had seen him at Marriage
Administration Headquarters, and I hadn't been particularly
impressed by his size. Standing, he was an arresting sight. The top of
his high, wide-brimmed hat touched the ceiling of the passageway;
the charcoal coat that hung so loosely on his shoulders could not
conceal their striking width; large bony wrists with huge arthritic
hands protruded from their cuffs. He looked like a giant who had
never had enough to eat.
As I stood staring, he removed his hat and, reaching into an inside
pocket of his coat, produced a stained plastic badge. He waved it
briefly before my eyes, then replaced it. "Captain Taigue," he said in a
voice as thin and unpleasant as his face. "I have a few questions to
ask you, Mr. Bartlett."
The shock of finding him on my doorstep had left me numb. But I
remembered my rights. "You've no right to ask me questions," I said.
"I'm a single man."
"I was invested with the right today when you applied for a wife. A
husband-to-be is as securely bound to the laws of matrimony as an
actual husband is."
He began to move through the doorway. I either had to get out of the
way or be pushed aside. I got out of the way. Taigue shut the door
behind him and sat down in the parlorette chair. He fixed me with his
brooding eyes.
"Tell me, Mr. Bartlett, do you accept the basic tenets embraced by the
marriage amendment?"
I still wasn't sure whether he had jurisdiction over me or not, but I
decided to cooperate. I was curious to know the reason for his visit.
"Naturally I accept them," I said.
"Then you devoutly believe that enforced monogamy is the final
answer to the deplorable serialized polygamy that characterized the
sexual relationships of the twentieth century and brought on the
conjugal chaos of the twenty-first; that strict adherence to the
monogamous ideal is mandatory if it is to be perpetuated; that the
marital unions computed by the Marriage Integrator can never be
questioned because they are the ultimate in emotional, physical, and
intellectual rapport—"
"I said I accepted the tenets," I said. "What more do you want?"
"That adultery," Taigue went on implacably, "is the most despicable
crime a citizen can commit against his society; that adultery has
many subtle phases, among the subtlest being the proclivity on the
part of some husbands and husbands-to-be to look at women other
than their wives or wives-to-be—and lust! You do devoutly believe
these things, do you not, Mr. Bartlett?"
"Look, Captain," I said. "I spent the whole afternoon being cross-
examined by a reverend psychiatrist. He knows more about my
sexual nature now than I do myself. If you doubt my marital fitness,
why don't you read his report?"
"Psychiatrists are fools," Taigue said. "I investigate applicants in my
own way. Now, for the last time, Mr. Bartlett, do you devoutly believe
the tenets I have just enumerated?"
"Yes!" I shouted.
"Then why did you look at the girl who took your application this
morning—and lust?"
The question staggered me. It betrayed a fantastic overzealousness
in his pursuit of his duty—an overzealousness so consuming that it
had warped his perspective, had made him see sin where no sin
existed. Julia Prentice was one woman whom you could not look at
and lust. It was that particular quality, I realized now, that had
attracted me to her in the first place.
I knew my face was burning; and I knew that Taigue was just the kind
of a man who would deliberately interpret a manifestation of anger as
a manifestation of guilt if it suited his predilections. The knowledge
infuriated me all the more. In his eyes I was guilty, and nothing I could
do would prove I wasn't.
I waited until I was sure I could control my voice. Then I said: "I think
you've been fasting too long, Captain. Your hallucinations are getting
the best of you."
He took no offense. In fact, he smiled as he got slowly to his feet. But
his eyes burned with a sort of crazed satisfaction that was either the
essence of dedication or the flickering of incipient insanity.
"I did not expect you to answer my question, Mr. Bartlett," he said. "I
merely wished to apprise you of the alertness of the MEP, and to
warn you that any further attention you may bestow on Julia Prentice
will not go unobserved—or unpunished."
"You can leave any time," I said, opening the door.
"I can also return any time. Remember that, Mr. Bartlett. And
remember the new commandment—Thou shalt not look at a woman
and lust!"

His tall starved body swayed slightly as he moved through the

doorway. It was all I could do to keep my fists at my sides, all I could
do to hold back the violent words and phrases that swirled in my
mind. When the door swung shut, eclipsing the charcoal shoulders, I
collapsed against it.
I had heard tales of the zealots who guarded the matrimonial sanctity
of society; I had even visited the Coliseum when a stoning was taking
place and seen the battered bloody bodies of the victims lying in the
dirt of the arena. But somehow neither the tales nor the bodies had
driven home the truth that overwhelmed me now.
When the inevitable metal crisis followed the production-consumption
orgy of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and the
material world began to fall apart, the people turned to religion for
succor. The subsequent merging of the two main churches was a
milestone in religious progress. But then the trend went so far that the
people elected church officials to represent them and began to stress
outward manifestations of virtue by regressing to Puritanical dress
and by voluntarily limiting their literary fare to the Bible, Paradise
Lost, The Pilgrims' Progress, The Scarlet Letter, and The Divine
Comedy.
The first clergy-congress was as zealous as the first ordained
president in the drafting and the passing of the marriage amendment.
And the frugal way of life already adopted by the people was ideal for
a world down to its last inch of topsoil. The Marriage Integrator fitted
into the new scheme of things nicely, for it justified the stern
enforcement of the new marriage laws. And so marriage became a
duty rather than a privilege.
I'd been profoundly distrustful of machine-made marriages ever since
my parents' suicide, and the surreptitious reading I'd done on the
various occasions when I had access to the book dump had
increased that distrust. Marriage, according to all the old literature I'd
read on it, was a pretty complex undertaking, so replete with
subtleties that it was difficult to imagine a computing machine, no
matter how intricate it might be, capable of dealing with them.
There was another aspect about Big Cupid that didn't quite add up.
Logically, compatible marriages should result in many children. But
most of the married couples in the apartments around me had only
one child, and many of them were childless. The condition held true
throughout the rest of the city, probably throughout the entire country.
A possible explanation lay in the popular conviction that sex was sin.
But it was far from being a satisfactory explanation. The original
Puritans identified sex with sin too, but they still raised large families.
No, there was something about Big Cupid that didn't make sense.
Moreover, there was something about the Age of Repentance itself
that didn't make sense either—when you used books other than the
sacred Five for criteria.
The sex orgies which climaxed the Age of Wanton Waste and were
influential in bringing about the mass regression to Puritanism, were
unquestionably a blot on the scarred escutcheon of civilization.
However, they only represented one extreme: the monogamous
fanaticism of the Age of Repentance represented the other, which
was just as remote from normalcy. Both were wrong.
The society in which I lived and moved was an inconsistent and a
rigid society; I had known this for years. But, until now, the knowledge
had never bothered me, for I had created the illusion of being a free
man by avoiding personal relationships, especially marriage. Now
that I could no longer do that, I realized my true status.
I was a prisoner—and Taigue was my keeper.
 CHAPTER III
I stood by the yawning mouth of the newly exhumed grave and
swore. I had only been on duty two hours, but I had lost a Cadillac-
corpse already.
I shifted the beam of my pocket torch from the deep impressions
made by the 'copter feet to the tumbled earth around the huge grave
mouth, then into the empty grave itself. The gun metal casket had left
a neat rectangle in the blue clay when the cargo winch had yanked it
loose. Staring down at the smooth, mute subsoil, I felt like Christian
wallowing in the Slough of Despond.
I had lied to Julia. Things were not under control at Cadillac. This was
the fourth car-corpse I had lost during the past month, and I
shuddered when I thought of what the Cadillac Sexton would
probably say to me in the morning.
The fact that I'd lost no time in notifying the Air Police was small
consolation. The half dozen decrepit 'copters they had at their
disposal were no match for the streamlined jobs of the ghouls. The
ghouls would get away just as they always did and one more car-
corpse would be dismembered and sold on the black market—or
contribute its vital steel, copper and aluminum to the clandestine
manufacture of newer and swifter 'copters.
I kicked a lump of loose dirt. I felt sick. Around me, tall lombardies
formed a palisade so dense that the light of the gibbous moon
couldn't penetrate it. Above me, Mars shone like an inflamed red eye.
For a moment I wished I were up there, a member of the abandoned
colony in Deucalionis Regio.
But only for a moment. The ordinary rigors of colonial life were as
nothing compared to the rigors that must have faced the Martian
colonists when the metal crisis terminated the building of spaceships
and brought about the colony's isolation. Perhaps those rigors had