She closed her eyes and sank back into the chair which arched to meet the arch of her body. Lying down, she didn't look nearly as tall. "All right, let's give the whole opera one final run-through. Nobody cared for you on Earth; on Damorlan your friends liked you; your wife loved you. On Earth you never felt welcome and/or appreciated; on Damorlan you felt both welcome and appreciated. On Earth--" He was stung out of his apathy. "That's right! I'm not saying I'm unique, only that I fitted--" "How about trying to look at it from another point of view? Did it ever occur to you that, if the Damorlanti accepted you, so might your own people, if you approached them in the same way? Did you ever _try_ to make friends on Earth?" "But on Earth I shouldn't have to. They were my own people." "Aha!" she cried gleefully. "I mean--well, General Spano said it would be wrong to stoop to hypocrisy to win the friendship of my own people; that, if I did, their friendship wouldn't be worth anything. You can't buy friendship." "You bought your ulerin. Does it play any the worse because you paid for it? Does it mean any the less to you?" "What you're getting at," he said cautiously, "is that that's the way to make friends? By being a hypocrite?" "Was it a sham with the Damorlanti?" He had to stop for a moment before he could bring out an answer. "It started out as a sham--but I really got to like them afterward. Then it was real." "So then you weren't a hypocrite, Clarey." Her voice grew more resonant. "Open yourself to people, show them that you want to be friends. Basically, everybody's shy and timid inside." "Like you?" he said, casting an ironical glance at her dress. "That's still the outside," she smiled, making no move to adjust it. "Listen to me, Clarey, and don't go off on sidetracks: The people of Earth are your own people. Your loyalties have always been with them." She had almost had him convinced, but this he couldn't swallow. "If my loyalties had been with Earth, I would have sent back reports of the trouble. But I didn't. I tried to stop it from happening. There just wasn't anything I could do." "The deep-probe never lies, Clarey. You didn't really try to stop it." She paused, and then went on deliberately: "Because you could have stopped it, you know quite easily." "There was nothing I could have done," he stated. "Nothing." "Remember the first time the staff ship came? Just before you left for Barshwat, the woman told you she suspected you were an Earthman. You were afraid for her. Do you remember that?" He nodded. Yes, he remembered how terrified he had been then, how relieved afterward, thinking everything was going to be all right. Lucky he hadn't realized the truth, or he wouldn't have had those extra years of happiness. * * * * *