A Reasonable Facsimile by Jean Stafford.

"Change is the only stimulus," insists Dr. Wolfgang Bohrmann on retiring from a career of teaching at Nevilles College in Adams, Colorado. Instead of resigning himself to spending the remainder of his allotted years in quiet retirement, Dr. Bohrmann embarks on a variety of engrossing pursuits, not the least of which is having a new house built for himself, a "house of tomorrow—cantilevered, half-glass—six miles out on the prairies." From his position on one of the house's many decks, the enthusiastic professor emeritus can command an expansive view of the Rocky Mountains and the ever-changing panorama of cloud and sky: "there dark rain, here blinding sunshine, yonder a sulphurous dust storm, haze on the summit of one peak, a pillow of cloud concealing a second, hyaline light on the glacier of a third."