touched his cheek gently, and said, looking into his eyes, "Did you find it pleasant, love?"
"Much more than pleasant, dear."
"Yet you are a Foundationer. A man in the prime of youth from Terminus itself. You must be accustomed to all sorts of women with all soul skills-"**
"I have encountered nothing-nothing-in the least like you," said Trevize, with a forcefulness that came easily to someone who was but telling the truth, after all.
Lizalor said complacently, "Well, if you say so. Still, old habits die hard, you know, and I don't think I could bring myself to trust a man's word without some sort of surety. You and your friend, Pelorat, might conceivably go on this mission of yours once I hear about it and approve, but I will keep the young woman here. She will be well treated, never fear, but I presume your Dr. Pelorat will want her, and he will see to it that there are frequent returns to Comporellon, even if your enthusiasm for this mission you to stay away too long."
"But, Lizalor, that's impossible."
"Indeed?" Suspicion at once seeped into her eyes. "Why impossible? For what purpose would you need the woman?"
"Not for sex. I told you that, and I told you truthfully. She is Pelorat's and I have no interest in her. Besides, I'm sure she'd break in two if she attempted what you so triumphantly carried through."
Lizalor almost smiled, but repressed it and said severely, "What is it to you, then, if she remains on Comporellon?"
"Because she is of essential importance to our mission. That is why we must have her."
"Well, then, what is your mission? It is time you told me."
Trevize hesitated very briefly. It would have to be the truth. He could think of no lie as effective.
"Listen to me," he said. "Comporellon may be an old world, even among the oldest, but it can't be the oldest. Human life did not originate here. The earliest human beings reached here from some other world, and perhaps human life didn't originate there either, but came from still another and still older world. Eventually, though, those probings back into time must stop, and we must reach the first world, the world of human origins. I am seeking Earth."
The change that suddenly came over Mitza Lizalor staggered him.
Her eyes had widened, her breathing took on a sudden urgency, and every muscle seemed to stiffen as she lay there in bed. Her arms shot upward rigidly, and the first two fingers of both hands crossed.
"You named it," she whispered hoarsely.
23.
SHE DIDN'T say anything after that; she didn't look at him. Her arms slowly came down, her legs swung over the side of the bed, and she sat up, back to him. Trevize lay where he was, frozen.
He could hear, in memory, the words of Munn Li Compor, as they stood there in the empty tourist center at Sayshell. He could hear him saying of his own ancestral planet-the one that Trevize was on now-"They're superstitious about it. Every time they mention the word, they lift up both hands with first and second fingers crossed to ward off misfortune."
How useless to remember after the fact.
"What should I have said, Mitza?" he muttered.
She shook her head slightly, stood up, stalked toward and then through a door. It closed behind her and, after a moment, there was the sound of water running.
He had no recourse but to wait, bare, undignified, wondering whether to join her in the shower, and then quite certain he had better not. And because, in a way, he felt the shower denied him, he at once experienced a growing need for one.
She emerged at last and silently began to select clothing.
He said, "Do you mind if I-"
She said nothing, and he took silence for consent. He tried to stride into the room in a strong and masculine way but he felt uncommonly as he had in those days when his mother, offended by some misbehavior on his part, offered him no punishment but silence, causing him to shrivel in discomfort.
He looked about inside the smoothly walled cubicle that was bare-completely bare. He looked more minutely. There was nothing.
He opened the door again, thrust his head out, and said, "Listen, how are you supposed to start the shower?"
She put down the deodorant (at least, Trevize guessed that was its function), strode to the shower-room and, still without looking at him, pointed. Trevize followed the finger and noted a spot on the wall that was round and faintly pink,