myself for years. I'm not used to people helping me."

"My--what a strange world you must come from. Haven't you ever had a
Lani before?"

"No."

"You poor man." Her voice was curiously pitying. "No one to make you
feel like the gods. No one to serve you. No one to even scrub your
back."

"That's enough," Kennon said. "I can scrub my own back."

"How?--you can't reach it."

Kennon groaned.

"Weren't there any Lani on your world?"

"No."

"No wonder you left it. It must be quite primitive."

"Primitive!" Kennon's voice was outraged. "Beta has one of the highest
civilizations in the Brotherhood!"

"But you don't have Lani," she said patiently. "So you must be
primitive."

"Halstead, Fleming, and Ochsner!" Kennon swore. "Do you believe that?"

"Naturally, isn't it obvious? You can't possibly be civilized unless you
take responsibility for intelligent life other than your own race.
Until you face up to your responsibilities you are merely a member of a
dominant race, not a civilized one."

Kennon's reply caught in his throat. His eyes widened as he looked at
her, and what he was about to say remained unspoken. "Out of the mouths
of humanoids--" he muttered oddly.

"What does that mean?" Copper asked.

"Forget it," Kennon said wildly. "Leave me alone. Go put on some
clothes. You embarrass me."

"I'll go," Copper said, "but you'll have to be embarrassed. Only
household Lani wear cloth." She frowned, two vertical furrows dividing
her dark brows. "I've never understood why inhouse Lani have to be
disfigured that way, but I suppose there's some reason for it. Men
seldom do anything without a reason."

Kennon shook his head. Either she was grossly ignorant, which he
doubted, or she was conditioned to the eyeballs.

The latter was more probable. But even that was doubtful. Her trenchant
remark about civilization wasn't the product of a conditioned mind. But
why was he worrying about her attitudes? They weren't important--she
wasn't even human. He shook his head. That was a sophistry. The fact
that she wasn't human had nothing to do with the importance of her
attitude. "I suppose there is a reason," he agreed. "But I don't know
it. I haven't been here long enough to know anything about such things."

She nodded. "That does make a difference," she admitted. "Many new
men are bothered at first by the fact that we Lani are naked, but they
adjust quickly. So will you." She smiled as she turned away. "You see