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.The smile upon the man s face faded quickly.While the fingersof one hand tightened whitely upon the sill, the other made aquick gesture.Arcadia obeyed calmly, and touched the contactthat moved the lower third of the window smoothly into itssocket in the wall,allowing the warm spring air to interfere withthe conditioning within. You can t get in, she said, with comfortable smugness. Thewindows are all screened, and keyed only to people who belonghere.If you come in,all sorts of alarms will break loose. A pause,then she added, You look sort of silly balancing on that ledge un-derneath the window.If you re not careful, you ll fall and breakyour neck and a lot of valuable flowers. In that case, said the man at the window, who had beenthinking that very thing with a slightly different arrangement ofadjectives will you shut off the screen and let me in? Asim_0553803735_3p_all_r1.qxd 2/4/04 12:08 PM Page 91SECOND FOUNDATI ON 91SECOND FOUNDATI ON 91 No use in doing that, said Arcadia. You re probably thinkingof a different house, because I m not the kind of girl who letsstrange men into their.her bedroom this time of night. Hereyes, as she said it, took on a heavy-lidded sultriness or an un-reasonable facsimile thereof.All traces of humor whatever had disappeared from theyoung stranger s face.He muttered, This is Dr.Darell s house,isn t it? Why should I tell you? Oh, Galaxy Good-by If you jump off, young man, I will personally give the alarm. (This was intended as a refined and sophisticated thrust of irony,since to Arcadia s enlightened eyes, the intruder was an obvi-ously mature thirty,at least quite elderly, in fact.)Quite a pause.Then, tightly, he said, Well, now, look here,girlie,if you don t want me to stay,and don t want me to go,whatdo you want me to do? You can come in, I suppose.Dr.Darell does live here.I ll shutoff the screen now. Warily, after a searching look, the young man poked his handthrough the window,then hunched himself up and through it.Hebrushed at his knees with an angry, slapping gesture, and lifted areddened face at her. You re quite sure that your character and reputation won tsuffer when they find me here, are you? Not as much as yours would, because just as soon as I hearfootsteps outside, I ll just shout and yell and say you forced yourway in here. Yes? he replied with heavy courtesy. And how do you in-tend to explain the shut-off protective screen? Poof! That would be easy.There wasn t any there in the firstplace. The man s eyes were wide with chagrin. That was a bluff?How old are you,kid? Asim_0553803735_3p_all_r1.qxd 2/4/04 12:08 PM Page 9292 I SAAC ASI MOV I consider that a very impertinent question,young man.And Iam not accustomed to being addressed as kid. I don t wonder.You re probably the Mule s grandmother indisguise.Do you mind if I leave now before you arrange a lynch-ing party with myself as star performer? You had better not leave because my father s expecting you. The man s look became a wary one,again.An eyebrow shot upas he said,lightly, Oh? Anyone with your father? No. Anyone called on him lately? Only tradespeople and you. Anything unusual happen at all? Only you. Forget me,will you? No,don t forget me.Tell me,how did youknow your father was expecting me? Oh, that was easy.Last week, he received a Personal Capsule,keyed to him personally,with a self-oxidizing message,you know.He threw the capsule shell into the Trash Disinto, and yesterday,he gave Poli that s our maid, you see a month s vacation soshe could visit her sister in Terminus City, and this afternoon, hemade up the bed in the spare room.So I knew he expected some-body that I wasn t supposed to know anything about.Usually, hetells me everything. Really! I m surprised he has to.I should think you d knoweverything before he tells you. I usually do. Then she laughed.She was beginning to feel verymuch at ease.The visitor was elderly,but very distinguished-lookingwith curly brown hair and very blue eyes.Maybe she could meetsomebody like that again,sometimes,when she was old herself. And just how, he asked, did you know it was I he expected. Well,who else could it be? He was expecting somebody in sosecrety a way, if you know what I mean and then you comegumping around trying to sneak through windows, instead ofwalking through the front door, the way you would if you hadany sense. She remembered a favorite line,and used it promptly. Men are so stupid! Asim_0553803735_3p_all_r1.qxd 2/4/04 12:08 PM Page 93SECOND FOUNDATI ON 93 Pretty stuck on yourself, aren t you, kid? I mean, Miss [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.The smile upon the man s face faded quickly.While the fingersof one hand tightened whitely upon the sill, the other made aquick gesture.Arcadia obeyed calmly, and touched the contactthat moved the lower third of the window smoothly into itssocket in the wall,allowing the warm spring air to interfere withthe conditioning within. You can t get in, she said, with comfortable smugness. Thewindows are all screened, and keyed only to people who belonghere.If you come in,all sorts of alarms will break loose. A pause,then she added, You look sort of silly balancing on that ledge un-derneath the window.If you re not careful, you ll fall and breakyour neck and a lot of valuable flowers. In that case, said the man at the window, who had beenthinking that very thing with a slightly different arrangement ofadjectives will you shut off the screen and let me in? Asim_0553803735_3p_all_r1.qxd 2/4/04 12:08 PM Page 91SECOND FOUNDATI ON 91SECOND FOUNDATI ON 91 No use in doing that, said Arcadia. You re probably thinkingof a different house, because I m not the kind of girl who letsstrange men into their.her bedroom this time of night. Hereyes, as she said it, took on a heavy-lidded sultriness or an un-reasonable facsimile thereof.All traces of humor whatever had disappeared from theyoung stranger s face.He muttered, This is Dr.Darell s house,isn t it? Why should I tell you? Oh, Galaxy Good-by If you jump off, young man, I will personally give the alarm. (This was intended as a refined and sophisticated thrust of irony,since to Arcadia s enlightened eyes, the intruder was an obvi-ously mature thirty,at least quite elderly, in fact.)Quite a pause.Then, tightly, he said, Well, now, look here,girlie,if you don t want me to stay,and don t want me to go,whatdo you want me to do? You can come in, I suppose.Dr.Darell does live here.I ll shutoff the screen now. Warily, after a searching look, the young man poked his handthrough the window,then hunched himself up and through it.Hebrushed at his knees with an angry, slapping gesture, and lifted areddened face at her. You re quite sure that your character and reputation won tsuffer when they find me here, are you? Not as much as yours would, because just as soon as I hearfootsteps outside, I ll just shout and yell and say you forced yourway in here. Yes? he replied with heavy courtesy. And how do you in-tend to explain the shut-off protective screen? Poof! That would be easy.There wasn t any there in the firstplace. The man s eyes were wide with chagrin. That was a bluff?How old are you,kid? Asim_0553803735_3p_all_r1.qxd 2/4/04 12:08 PM Page 9292 I SAAC ASI MOV I consider that a very impertinent question,young man.And Iam not accustomed to being addressed as kid. I don t wonder.You re probably the Mule s grandmother indisguise.Do you mind if I leave now before you arrange a lynch-ing party with myself as star performer? You had better not leave because my father s expecting you. The man s look became a wary one,again.An eyebrow shot upas he said,lightly, Oh? Anyone with your father? No. Anyone called on him lately? Only tradespeople and you. Anything unusual happen at all? Only you. Forget me,will you? No,don t forget me.Tell me,how did youknow your father was expecting me? Oh, that was easy.Last week, he received a Personal Capsule,keyed to him personally,with a self-oxidizing message,you know.He threw the capsule shell into the Trash Disinto, and yesterday,he gave Poli that s our maid, you see a month s vacation soshe could visit her sister in Terminus City, and this afternoon, hemade up the bed in the spare room.So I knew he expected some-body that I wasn t supposed to know anything about.Usually, hetells me everything. Really! I m surprised he has to.I should think you d knoweverything before he tells you. I usually do. Then she laughed.She was beginning to feel verymuch at ease.The visitor was elderly,but very distinguished-lookingwith curly brown hair and very blue eyes.Maybe she could meetsomebody like that again,sometimes,when she was old herself. And just how, he asked, did you know it was I he expected. Well,who else could it be? He was expecting somebody in sosecrety a way, if you know what I mean and then you comegumping around trying to sneak through windows, instead ofwalking through the front door, the way you would if you hadany sense. She remembered a favorite line,and used it promptly. Men are so stupid! Asim_0553803735_3p_all_r1.qxd 2/4/04 12:08 PM Page 93SECOND FOUNDATI ON 93 Pretty stuck on yourself, aren t you, kid? I mean, Miss [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]