yugo amaryl said, "here you are again, dors."

"sorry, yugo. i'm bothering you twice this week. actually you don't see anyone very often, do you?"

amaryl said, "i don't encourage people to visit me, no. they tend to interrupt me and break my line of thought. -not you, dors. you're altogether special, you and hari. there's never a day i don't remember what you two have done for me."

dors waved her hand. "forget it, yugo. you've worked hard for hari and any trifling kindness we did for you has long been overpaid. how is the project going? hari never talks about it-not to me, anyway."

amaryl's face lightened and his whole body seemed to take on an infusion of life. "very well. very well. it's difficult to talk about it without mathematics, but the progress we've made in the last two years is amazing-more than in all the time before that. it's as though, after we've been hammering away and hammering away, things have finally begun to break loose."

"i've been hearing that the new equations worked out by dr. elar have helped the situation."

"the achaotic equations? yes. enormously."

"and the electro-clarifier has been helpful, too. i spoke to the woman who designed it."

"cinda monay?"

"yes. that's the one."

"a very clever woman. we're fortunate to have her."

"tell me, yugo- you work at the prime radiant virtually all the time, don't you?"

"i'm more or less constantly studying it. yes."

"and you study it with the electro-clarifier."

"certainly."

"don't you ever think of taking a vacation, yugo?"

amaryl looked at her owlishly, blinking slowly. "a vacation?"

"yes. surely you've heard the word. you know what a vacation is."

"why should i take a vacation?"

"because you seem dreadfully tired to me."

"a little, now and then. but i don't want to leave the work."

"do you feel more tired now than you used to?"

"a little. i'm getting older, dors."

"you're only forty-nine."

"that's still older than i've ever been before."

"well, let it go. tell me, yugo-just to change the subject. how is hari doing at his work? you've been with him so long that no one could possibly know him better than you do. not even i. at least, as far as his work is concerned."

"he's doing very well, dors. i see no change in him. he still has the quickest and brightest brain in the place. age is having no effect on him -at least, not so far."

"that's good to hear. i'm afraid that his own opinion of himself is not as high as yours is. he's not taking his age well. we had a difficult time getting him to celebrate his recent birthday. were you at the festivities, by the way? i didn't see you."

"i attended part of the time. but, you know, parties of that kind are not the sort of thing i feel at home with."

"do you think hari is wearing out? i'm not referring to his mental brilliance. i'm referring to his physical capacities. in your opinion, is he growing tired-too tired to bear up under his responsibilities?"

amaryl looked astonished. "i never gave it any thought. i can't imagine him growing tired."

"he may be, just the same. i think he has the impulse, now and then, to give up his post and hand the task over to some younger man."

amaryl sat back in his chair and put down the graphic stylus he had been fiddling with ever since dors had entered. "what! that's ridiculous! impossible!"

"are you sure?"

"absolutely. he certainly wouldn't consider such a thing without discussing it with me. and he hasn't."

"be reasonable, yugo. hari is exhausted. he tries not to show it, but he is. what if he does decide to retire? what would become of the project? what would become of psychohistory?"

amaryl's eyes narrowed. "are you joking, dors?"

"no. i'm just trying to look into the future."

"surely, if hari retires, i succeed to the post. he and i ran the project for years before anyone else joined us. he and i. no one else. except for him, no one knows the project as i do. i'm amazed you don't take my succession for granted, dors."

dors said, "there's no question in my mind or in anyone else's that you are the logical successor, but do you want to be? you may know everything about psychohistory, but do you want to throw yourself into the politics and complexities of a large project and abandon much of your work in order to do so? actually it's trying to keep everything moving smoothly that's been wearing hari down. can you take on that part of the job?"

"yes, i can and it's not something i intend to discuss. -look here, dors. did you come here to break the news that hari intends to ease me out?"

dors said, "certainly not! how could you think that of hari! have you ever known him to turn on a friend?"

"very well, then. let's drop the subject. really, dors, if you don't mind, there are things i must do." abruptly he turned away from her and bent over his work once more.

"of course. i didn't mean to take up this much of your time."

dors left, frowning.