Laura ironically confirms: "I""m a happily married woman."Fred, dear Fred.There""s so much that I want to say o you.You""re the only one in the world with enough wisdom and gentleness to understand.If only it was somebody else""s story and not mine.As it is, you""re the only one in the world that I can never tell.Never never.Because even if I waited until we were old, old people and told you then, you""d be bound to look back over the years and be hurt.They departed in defeat after he sun set, fearing that their journey had been in vain ("There""s no more to be done").Each of the flashbacks is an idealized construct of her.[Whether the real Laura measures up to his adoring memories is open to question.] He begins with their dining together "the night before her twenty-second birthday.Just we two, happy, making plans for her future." But first, he recalls, from his point of view, when Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) was still a young aspiring career woman five years earlier when she first approached him in the Algonquin Hotel dining room where he was having lunch.In an adjoining coffee shop, one disgruntled customer noted: "Somebody""s behind this.You can""t tell me there""s no oil.You can""t tell me someone""s not getting rich off this...You know who suffers, the small guy." Gus Gorman guiltily sat nearby, realizing the harm he had created.Outside of a cave in a distant sandstone canyon area, Webscoe workers in white overalls supervised the helicopter-delivery of a large box of materials/supplies - for the super-computer, to be built with Webster""s newly-acquired wealth.