"I'd rather you wouldn't," Lyf said. "There is, after all, a certain species incompatibility between yours and mine. Incidentally, you have perfect health. You'll never know a sick day for the rest of your life which should be quite long. And I gave you a fine singing voice, and a mental attitude that will let you use it." "Thank you," Miss Twilley murmured as she stared at her reflection. "I've left instructions for your financial operations on your dresser. Follow them and you'll be financially independent. I think that does it. Everything is satisfactory, I trust." "Completely," Miss Twilley breathed, never removing her eyes from the mirror. "Then I shall be leaving." * * * * * Miss Twilley drew in a deep breath and observed the results with utter fascination. "Don't you think I'm beautiful?" she asked. Lyf smiled. "Different worlds, different standards," he said. "Beautiful isn't quite the word I would use." "What word _would_ you use?" "Useful," Lyf said. "Useful? Hmm. What do you mean?" "It should be obvious," Lyf said. "But I suppose it isn't. You humans are a strange lot. You assume. You don't reason. And it always shocks you to find that your assumptions are wrong." Miss Twilley looked at him with wide eyes. A cold chill ran down her spine and poked tingling rootlets of ice into her viscera. "What have I assumed?" "Do I have to answer that?" Miss Twilley blushed. The effect was far more startling this time. Lyf smiled with an air that would have been infuriating in a human but was somehow appropriate for a Devi. Miss Twilley sighed. At least _that_ worry was removed. "Perhaps I should give you a short synopsis of Devian society," Lyf said. "It's not like yours. Millennia ago our culture and technology evolved to the point where individual needs could be satisfied effortlessly. As a result we were compelled to consider group desires. Modern society on Hel is composed of enclaves with a community of interest plus certain ancillary groups that support them. The task of satisfying the desires of an enclave is infinitely more complex than satisfying an individual, which gives our civilization the necessary stimulus to progress. "One of the reasons we deal with your world is to provide us with things impractical to produce upon our own. Another reason is amusement. If only you humans were not so savage we could perhaps arrange tours of Earth to observe you in your native haunts." "Is that why--" Miss Twilley began. He shook his head. "No--the importation of humans for ethnological studies has long since become a matter of interest only to highly specialized enclaves. _That_ subject has been exhausted for popular satisfaction. We have tried to import other species, but they do not thrive on Hel, and it takes a great deal of trouble merely to keep them alive. However, your race adapts so readily that even your cultural variations disappear in a few decades.