"That is true. And I am the first woman you have ever made love to?" "No, of course not. But I've never felt the same about them as I do about you." "I, the same. George, I think you still do not understand me. In your time there are women who get things from men by seeming to promise more than they intend to give, for simulating emotions they do not feel. You think I am one of those ... no, please don't interrupt ... I am not. In my time there are no such women, people understand each other too well, they are too hard to fool. "Instead, there are women like me, women who are peculiarly attractive to men, and peculiarly susceptible to men--honestly so. Believe me, it is not an easy way to make a living. A woman has only so much honest emotion to give. Do you understand now?" She looked up at him appealingly. He did not understand, but he believed. He could not doubt that this was as important to her as to him, that regardless of the motives behind it, her feeling was deep and honest. And yet, it was impossible to understand, impossible for him to visualize a world in which people knew accurately the feeling others held for them; and yet still loved, disliked, or were indifferent. It was, he thought, a little like a caveman trying to understand the complexities and compulsions of polite urban society. He slumped back down beside her. "I don't know," he said glumly. "You're right, I suppose, it all sounds logical; but I still don't understand." She drew him to her. "Poor George," she said with her mouth against his ear. "Poor George, I know only one way to console you, and only one way to console myself." She sighed. "And it seems they will not permit that, I suppose the 'reaction,'" she smiled wryly, "would not fit with their plans." Dolan straightened and looked at her sharply. Her remark had reminded him of something else he needed to know. "How do they _know_ just when to break us up," he asked, "just when to drop in 'accidentally' on us? Can they read my mind?" She shook her head. "No, they are not mind-readers. It is just that they know so much about what to expect of people--remember that for thousands of years there has been nothing so important to us as what other people do, in my time men of science no longer study physical things, all that is known, they study people. In any given situation, they can predict quite accurately what action a given individual will take." "You think they know what we're talking about now?" "Not in detail. But in general, yes--and I suppose it must serve their purpose in some way for us to worry about these things, what will become of you and me, or they would not permit it. In a matter such as this, they do nothing without a purpose." "Well, that's fair enough," Dolan said grimly. "As long as they aren't actually mind-readers, they can guess all they want to."