she wouldn't think of that."
"Poor Hari. It was all perfectly natural, you know. I would probably have had similar trouble if I was alone with a Brother. Worse, I'm sure, since he would believe-Mycogenian society being what it is-that as a woman I would be bound to obey his orders without delay or demur."
"No, Dors. You may think it was perfectly natural, but you didn't experience it. The poor woman was in a high state of sexual excitement. She engaged all her senses... smelled her fingers, licked them. If she could have heard hair grow, she would have listened avidly."
"But that's what I mean by 'natural.' Anything you make forbidden gains sexual attractiveness. Would you be particularly interested in women's breasts if you lived in a society in which they were displayed at all times?"
"I think I might."
"Wouldn't you be more interested if they were always hidden, as in most societies they are?- Listen, let me tell you something that happened to me. I was at a lake resort back home on Cinna... I presume you have resorts on Helicon, beaches, that sort of thing?"
"Of course," said Seldon, slightly annoyed. "What do you think Helicon is, a world of rocks and mountains, with only well water to drink?"
"No offense, Hari. I just want to make sure you'll get the point of the story. On our beaches at Cinna, we're pretty lighthearted about what we wear... or don't wear."
"Nude beaches?"
"Not actually, though I suppose if someone removed all of his or her clothing it wouldn't be much remarked on. The custom is to wear a decent minimum, but I must admit that what we consider decent leaves very little to the imagination."
Seldon said, "We have somewhat higher standards of decency on Helicon."
"Yes, I could tell that by your careful treatment of me, but to each its own. In any case, I was sitting at the small beach by the lake and a young man approached to whom I had spoken earlier in the day. He was a decent fellow I found nothing particularly wrong with. He sat on the arm of my chair and placed his right hand on my left thigh, which was bare, of course, in order to steady himself.
"After we had spoken for a minute and a half or so, he said, impishly. 'Here I am. You know me hardly at all and yet it seems perfectly natural to me that I place my hand on your thigh. What's more, it seems perfectly natural to you, since you don't seem to mind that it remains there.'
"It was only then that I actually noticed that his hand was on my thigh. Bare skin in public somehow loses some of its sexual quality. As I said, its the hiding from view that is crucial.
"And the young man felt this too, for he went on to say, 'Yet if I were to meet you under more formal conditions and you were wearing a gown, you wouldn't dream of letting me lift your gown and place my hand on your thigh on the precise spot it now occupies.'
"I laughed and we continued to talk of this and that. Of course, the young man, now that my attention had been called to the position of his hand, felt it no longer appropriate to keep it there and removed it.
"That night I dressed for dinner with more than usual care and appeared in clothing that was considerably more formal than was required or than other women in the dining room were wearing. I found the young man in question. He was sitting at one of the tables. I approached, greeted him, and said, 'Here I am in a gown, but under it my left thigh is bare. I give you permission. Just lift the gown and place your hand on my left thigh where you had it earlier.'
"He tried. I'll give him credit for that, but everyone was staring. I wouldn't have stopped him and I'm sure no one else would have stopped him either, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was no more public then than it had been earlier and the same people were present in both cases. It was clear that I had taken the initiative and that I had no objections, but he could not bring himself to violate the proprieties. The conditions, which had been hand-on-thigh in the afternoon, were not hand-on-thigh in the evening and that meant more than anything logic could say."
Seldon said, "I