"But you should know that an intellectual can cause difficulties. This man would be considered a god among the women. Perhaps even among the men. Mohln is at a point where such an element as this could precipitate disaster, create perhaps a germ of dissatisfaction with our great order. Or is that, by chance, what you intend?" Draken backed away. "No, it isn't." "Don't let the presence of this man be known beyond these four walls, or out of your own laboratory. For your sake and mine, heed my suggestion, Draken." "Yes," quivered Draken. "I am heeding it. But you know my attitude toward this _great_ order. You know how I regard the maintenance of the Status Quo." I knew it too, from the way his pallid lips curled. This little man hated the Mohln system, whatever it was. Jokan got languidly to her feet, a fluid musical allegro. "I know, Draken. If you weren't the greatest thinker in Mohln besides myself, I would report you to the Council for the Maintenance of the Status Quo. But as long as you only think idly, you can cause Mohln no harm." "The only harm Mohln can suffer," said Draken wearily, "is to continue on as it does now. Toward final decay and rot." Jokan laughed frostily. I shivered. "Stop worrying, Draken, and go away. I must begin my experiments." She turned her eyes on me. She could have stared down a bronze statue. I turned my eyes from hers on the pretense of looking for Draken, but he was gone. I jumped to my feet, and the movement revealed that I, too, had on the costume that Draken wore. Without egoism, I can say that it must have looked more becoming on me than on the little scientist. I was at least a foot taller than Jokan. She came toward me, fluid motion. I couldn't back away--I insist I wanted to get away for various reasons, the least being that I wanted to get solid on my mental feet--from the metal table. I looked almost frantically for a door or some kind of exit, even a window. There was nothing. Then those perfect arms slipped around my neck and that body pressed itself against mine and-- I am only human. That's a trite enough excuse, if an excuse is necessary, but under those conditions I could certainly do no less. I let my arms come around her perfect waist, and I bent her back in the most acceptable televex manner and planted a long solid one right on those perfect lips--lips I'm very certain had never been kissed before. And that was precisely the trouble, perhaps, with that thoughtless, but irresistible, impulse of mine. Her nails were long and sharp and they clawed at my face. Cold light blazed in her eyes, flashing with outraged dignity and burning hate. I swung down and away, sliding across the metal table, and stood with blood running down my face, with the table my only protection between myself and this paradoxical Circe.