Summary

5. At his meeting with the cosmetics manufacturer, Mitchell’s statistics and scenarios have no effect on the company’s elderly owner, who becomes outright mocking. Only when Mitchell changes tactic and suggests everything will be fine does her attitude start to change in his favor. It changes even more when Mitchell, caught up in mental calculations of odds for and against the destruction he has just said is not likely, gets himself so worked up that he faints. As he comes to, he again feels water trickling down his neck as someone squeezes a cold, wet cloth on his forehead. For the rest of the day, narration says, Mitchell’s meetings all go the same way – clients become more moved to purchase Future World’s product by Mitchell’s optimism than by his statistics. Jane becomes...