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a few motor vehicles, though certain of the Kavi, that is, members of the priesthood, questioned that much innovation."
    "I thought you said you were not reactionary?" She managed to sound matter-of-fact rather than sultry, with some effort.
    "Oh, it wasn't a question of religion. It was a question of aesthetics. Some members of the Council simply felt that cars and trucks smelled very bad. There were long arguments concerning utility versus aesthetics. I've read them. Very dull.

    "To continue with my tale: The narrow pass which connected Alphenlicht and Lubovosk was controlled by Russian border guards. Over the past hundred years interaction between the two parts of the country has been very much restricted. Access to the Cave of Light has been almost impossible for people from the north. Since they had been accustomed to using the cave, they evolved their own substitutes. People do find ways to get answers to important questions. Theirs involved a heavy admixture of shamanistic influences."
    "I thought shamans were from—oh, the far north."
    "Some are. Some are found in Turkey. The black shamans who came to Lubovosk did happen to be from the far north.
    Well, at this point we may make a long story short. Four generations after the separation, a group of people in Lubovosk, supported by the U.S.S.R. for obvious reasons, has decided that Lubovosk, not Alphenlicht, is the true heir to the religious leadership of both countries. They base this on the fact that Madame's great-grandfather was my great-grandfather's older brother. They conveniently ignore the fact that after several generations of re-education and shamanistic influences, there's no one in Lubovosk who even pretends to believe in religion, a prerequisite, one would think, if a theocracy is to work. The U.S. State Department supports us, of course. Russia supports Lubovosk's ridiculous claim. No one else cares. So we have gone through this charade. When it was all over, some of the delegates woke up and went on with their business. Everyone was very bored. The only two people present who took it seriously were Madame and I. Do you know Tahiti? She is named, by the way, for the fire goddess of our ancestors. Not inappropriately."
    "Madame Delubovoska? No. I never knew she existed until a few days ago."
    "As I told you, she is a kind of back side kin of yours. You can imagine how surprised I was when she introduced Professor Zahmani to me. I knew at once who he was, of course, for you had told me about him."
    "Not too much, I hope," she said in astonishment. "I certainly never thought you'd meet him...."
    "Ah. Well, it turned out fortuitously. I had just invited Madame to the country place we have taken here when she introduced me to your brother. So I invited him as well, intending that you, also, should be my guest."
    "Oh. With... Harvey? I don't..." She did not know what to say. The thought stunned and horrified her, and her voice betrayed the emotions. There was a strained silence.
    "I see I have made a mistake," he said with obvious dis-comfort and an expression almost of dismay. "There is something awkward? You do not like him?"
    "I—I'm probably very childish. It's just—he's quite a bit older than I. He was left rather in charge of my affairs when Papa Zahmani died. He is not..."
    "Not sympathetic."
    "No. No, you may truthfully say that he is not sympathetic.
    Not where his little sister is concerned."
    "But it's more than that? Even when I said I had met him, there was a certain quality in your silence. It is something which makes you reluctant to meet him at all?"
    "It is awkward," she admitted. "Sometimes I interpret things he does and says as—threatening. He may not intend them in that way. And yet..."
    He was looking at her in a curiously intent way, not intimately, more as though he found her a fascinating item of study.
    The perusal did not make her feel insulted or invaded, as men's thoughtful glances sometimes did, but she felt the questing