To her relief the other girls and women, unless their thoughts lied, showed very little resentment at her presence. In fact most of them were as eager as the men to question her about the home planet--though their questions were cast in more feminine mould. Yet Lynne played her welcome cautiously, accepting no dates for the present on the plea that mastery of her new job demanded all her time and strength. A few days later Lao Mei-O'Connell suggested the two of them go for a walk. When they were well out of earshot of the others she said, "You're handling yourself very well, Lynne. So far so good." Lynne eyed her, carefully avoiding a probe of her mind--she had no wish to make an enemy of this woman and the basic situation was emotionally delicate to begin with. She said, "Then you anticipate trouble, Miss O'Connell?" "Lao, please," she said. "There's scant room for social formality in a settlement like Barkutburg. You'll have some trouble, of course--you're bound to on an alien planet. I hate to think of what I'd have to go through to adjust to Earth." "Fair enough," Lynne said gratefully. She wanted to ask Lao about Revere, what sort of man he was, some of his little habits. She also began to understand better why Earth-Mars twins were kept so rigorously apart as a rule. The relationship was a complex and deep one and she found herself almost as homesick for her twin as was Lao. "Life is hard here," Lao said, "but not unhappy. It isn't even particularly earnest, save for necessary jobs. Work hard, play hard, rest hard--that's the rule of Mars." "It sounds good," said Lynne sincerely. "Tell me, Lao, just what _is_ the status of electricity on Mars? I was a little worried when you wanted the chemilamps so urgently. But we have the communicator phones and electric cooking...." "It's a strange problem," said the other woman. "Everything works as long as we can use a closed circuit on this planet. But the minute we open one up--for lateral broadcasting, say--it is dissipated--like _that_!" She snapped thin fingers sharply. Then she added, "But nature seemed to have compensated in our favor when we were able to develop telepaths." She eyed Lynne speculatively, added, "You must have tremendous powers. No other Earth-person has ever been able to make the grade. From what Rolf Marcein told me you were outstanding the moment Revere reached you." "I don't pretend to understand it," said Lynne. "As far as my first few sessions on duty, it seemed to be all right." "You weren't bothered?" The question was softly urgent. "No." Lynne shook her head. "But I'm expecting to be." "You will be, I'm afraid. Every telepath on Mars has been at least once. Revere had the bad luck to be the first--before the presence of these beings was even suspected. Hence he was surprised and his resistance was unprepared. Once they've gained possession it becomes progressively more difficult to keep them out."