So the next morning, we yelled for books. And for the following days, whenever anybody was around, we were busy sniffing flowers and reading. Between times, I tried to explain to the wrestlers why there weren't more pictures in the books. A week later, we sprang the trap. I told the stablehand who brought us our fodder that I had taken in so much culture that I was breathing beauty. Zbich, gagging a little, asked for a second helping of flower roots. Gorgeous Gordon requested a needle and thread; he said he had fallen behind in his needlepoint. A report of the conversation got to the council of elders and it brought them to the lip of the pit, looking like something the glue factory had refused to accept. Aliana was with them. I bowed from the waist and made a speech. I thanked the elders for showing me the error of my ways. I said that, after staying in the lovely erydnium pit, I was enraptured with flowers, crazy about culture and practically engaged in five dimension calculus. I asked that I and the boys could have the priceless boon of walking freely around Eros, swapping beautiful thoughts with the local yokels. The elders went into a deep state of flutter. Most of them were for accepting our proposition out of hand--which was bad. Our old pal with the beard saved us. "But I saw these men romping," he shrilled. He lowered his voice to a high alto. "Positively romping!" "Perhaps these men could prove their sincerity," Aliana said, winking at me. "Perhaps one of them would consent to illustrate what he has learned here by giving a public talk on some scientific subject." "I should be glad," I answered, "to hack off a lecture for the good folk of Eros. Suppose I give it on anatomy." And so it was decided. Exactly as we had planned. There was an amphitheater which the inhabitants of Eros had been using for ballets, string quartets and lectures by such of the longhairs as got stuffed so full of long words that they couldn't keep them to themselves. I had ringposts and ropes set up on the platform, saying I needed them to illustrate my talk. I got into the ring with Gorgeous Gordon and Zbich, who were dressed in trunks and bathrobes. The wit and beauty of Eros was assembled there, the beauty being represented by the girls, and the wit--such as it was--by the council of elders. The rest of the seats were filled with other forms, some of them tolerably easy to look at. I had picked out the subject of anatomy in the belief that none of the inhabitants of Eros knew anything about it. The men didn't notice and the women had nothing at all to look at, anyway. I went into my act.