Donal frowned, getting into the uniform. Elvine had conceived the idea of nursing him after his return from the short hospital stay that had followed the Newton affair. It was her convenient conclusion that he was still suffering from the psychological damage of the overdose of phase-shifting they had all gone through. Medical opinion and Donal’s to the contrary, she had insisted on attaching herself to him with a constancy which lately had led him to wonder if perhaps he would not have preferred the phase shifting itself. The frown now vanished, however.

“I think I see an end to that,” he said. “What else?”

“This William of Ceta you’re so interested in,” answered Lee. “He’s here for the party.”

Donal turned his head to look sharply at the man. But Lee was merely delivering a report. The bony face was empty of even those small signs of expression which Donal had come to be able to read, in these past weeks of association.

“Who told you I was interested in William?” he demanded.

“You listen when people talk about him,” said Lee. “Shouldn’t I mention him?”

“No, that’s all right,” Donal said. “I want you to tell me whenever you find out anything about him you think I might not know. I just didn’t know you observed that closely.”

Lee shrugged. He held the jacket for Donal to slide his arms into.

“Where’d he come from?” asked Donal.

“Venus,” said Lee. “He’s got a Newton man with him—big young drunk named Montor. And a girl— one of those special people from the Exotics.”

“The Select of Kultis?”

“That’s right.”

“What’re they doing here?”

“He’s top-level,” said Lee. “Who is, on Freiland and not here for your party?”

Donal frowned again. He had almost managed to forget that it was in his honor these several hundred well-known people would be gathered here tonight. Oh—not that he would be expected to place himself on show. The social rules of the day and this particular world made lionizing impolite. Direct lionizing, that is. You honored a man by accepting his hospitality, that was the theory. And since Donal had little in the way of means to provide hospitality for the offering, the marshal had stepped into the breach. Nevertheless, this was the sort of occasion that went against Donal’s instinctive grain.