kin looked again like soft alabaster. But no one
seemed to notice. Luog was saying, "--exodus from the prehistoric Sirian
worlds to the first culture in the Denebian system, the Var one. More
than ten thousand Vars ago."

"Satisfactory for a Receptive, Luog of Panden," the instructor smiled.
"The Dominants would go back a bit further and talk of the Sirian wars,
but that much is a matter of opinion, since the wars are largely
mythical, anyway. And so we have set the stage for history. We have--"

* * * * *

Smith wanted to get up indignantly and tell the instructor, tell them
all, what the most glorious epochs of history really were. You would
find it in the museums of earth, on the plaques and in the statues and
on the old old records of Earth. There was a lot Smith wanted to tell
them because there was so much only he could tell them, so much they had
forgotten.

But he merely sat and stared politely at the black-uniformed instructor.
You don't show yourself as a provincial--what was the word?--rube, not
when your culture, while temporarily the oldest, is in a lot of ways the
most neophite of them all.

You just sat and stared, looking interested.

The instructor's voice cut into his thoughts, "Earth of Smith--"

"Smith of Earth," he said, automatically.

"I did not tell you to talk, Smith of Earth. And if your card says Earth
of Smith, how am I to know? A mistake, yes--but an understandable one.
I'm a historian, and I have heard of neither planet. Where is this
Earth? Talk, Smith!"

He stood up, although it wasn't really necessary, and he could feel his
knees trembling slightly. "Earth is a few parsecs from Sirius, and
Sirius I think you know."

"I know Sirius. Now talk!"

"What is it you want me to say? I don't feel much like talking--"

"Yet you speak so loud that the room fairly rocks with it. I wanted you
to tell us why you did not agree with the answer just now rendered. It
is, I feel, a good one. Talk."

"Then I agree, it is a good one." Smith did not want to get involved. He
wanted to be a good, quietly efficient student. Nothing more. But he
forgot that the instructor could read minds.

"You lie, Smith of Earth. I won't go into it any further, because it is
your privilege if you want to lie. But you are not to listen for the
remainder of this lecture. Do not listen."

Smith nodded, cursed himself mentally because he had made such a mess of
things here at his v