The only thing he allowed himself to do was put down the robe he was holding. "Do you think I send expensive toilet sets to myself? You must think Piq's right--I'm just plain crazy." "Piq doesn't think you're crazy any more. He and the other old ones say you have a woman in Barshwat. But I don't believe that!" "Maybe I do, Embelsira. A man's a man, even if he is a librarian." "I know it isn't true. I think it's ... something else entirely. You're so strange sometimes, Balt. How could somebody who comes only from the other side of the same world be so strange?" * * * * * He forced a grin. "Suddenly you've become very cosmic. What do you know of our--of the world? It's a big place. And nobody else in Katund seems to be so impressed by my strangeness; they think a foreigner's entitled to his queer ways." "Nobody in Katund knows you as well as I do. And I've seen foreigners before. They're not different in the way you are." She looked intently at him. "It's not a shameful kind of strangeness, just a ... strange kind of strangeness. Fascinating in its way--I don't want you to think I just married the first stranger who came along...." "I'm sure you had many offers, dear. Come, help me fold this cloak or I'll never make the bus." "You know what I'm reminded of?" she said, coming forward and taking the cloak. "Of the old tale about the lovely village maiden who marries the handsome stranger and promises she'll never look into his eyes. And then one day she forgets and looks into his eyes and sees--" "What does she see?" "The worst thing of all, the greatest horror. She sees nothing. She sees emptiness." He laughed. "The moral's clear. She shouldn't have looked into his eyes." "But how can you help looking into the eyes of the man you love? Maybe that's the moral--that it was an impossible task he set her." "In those tales it's always the man's fault, isn't it? Not much doubt who made them up. Now, Belsir, please, I've got to finish packing. It'll be just my luck to have today be the day the bus to Zrig's on time." "A couple of weeks ago I was in Zrig shopping and I saw an Earthman," she said, folding his cloak into the kit. "The way he walked, the way he moved, reminded me a little of you." It was a long moment before he could speak. "Do I look to you like a dark-faced, dark-haired, brown-eyed--" "I didn't _say_ you were an Earthman! But if Earthmen can travel through the sky, they might be able to do other things, too; maybe even change the way a man looks." He snapped the kit-fastener. "If you really believe that, you should be careful. Creatures as clever as that might be able to pluck your words from my brain." "What if they did? I'm not ashamed. Or afraid, either."