(He had avoided making the mistake a second time, thought Gladia. Her eyes narrowed and she grew hostile as she decided he had come to her in order to probe for material damaging to poor, good Han.)
She said tartly, "Anyone who thinks that is a fool. If you think so, I won't change the expression for your benefit."
"I am not one of those who thinks so, largely because I don't see what Dr. Fastolfe could have done to make it a fiasco."
"Why should anyone have had to do anything? What it amounts to is that the public didn't want them. A robot that looks like a man competes with a man and one that looks like a woman competes with a woman - and entirely too closely for comfort. Aurorans didn't want the competition. Do we need to look any further?"
"Sexual competition?" said Mandamus calmly.
For a moment, Gladia's gaze met his levelly. Did he know of her long-ago love for the robot Jander? Did it matter if he did?
There seemed nothing in his expression to make it appear that he meant anything beyond the surface meaning of the words.
She said finally, "Competition in every way. If Dr. Han Fastolfe did anything to contribute to such a feeling, it was that he designed his robots in too human a fashion, but that was the only way."
"I think you have thought about the matter," said Mandamus. "The trouble is that sociologists find the fear of competition with too-human, a set of robots to be simplistic, as an explanation. That alone would not suffice and there is no evidence of any other aversion motive of significance."
"Sociology is not an exact 'science,'" said Gladia.
"It is not altogether inexact, either."
Gladia shrugged.
After a pause, Mandamus said, "In any case, it kept us from organizing colonizing expeditions properly. Without humanoid robots to pave the way - "
Breakfast was not quite over, but it was clear to Gladia that Mandamus could not avoid the nontrivial any longer. She said, "We might have gone ourselves."
This time it was Mandamus who shrugged. "Too difficult. Besides, those short-lived barbarians from Earth, with the permission of your Dr. Fastolfe, have swarmed over every planet in sight like a plague of beetles."
"There are plenty of available planets still. Millions. And if they can do it - "
"Of course they can do it," said Mandamus with sudden passion. "It costs lives, but what are lives to them? The loss of a decade or so, that's all, and there are billions of them.
"If a million or so die in the process of colonizing, who notices, who cares? They don't."
"I'm sure they do."
"Nonsense. Our lives are longer and therefore more valuable - and we are naturally more careful with them."
"So we sit here and do nothing but rail at Earth's Settlers for being willing to risk their lives and for seeming to inherit the Galaxy as a result."
Gladia was unaware of feeling so pro-Settler a bias, but she was in the mood to contradict Mandamus and as she spoke she could not help but feel that what began as mere contradiction made sense and could well represent her feelings. Besides, she had heard Fastolfe say similar things during his last discouraged years.
At Gladia's signal, the table was being rapidly and efficiently cleared. Breakfast might have continued, but the conversation and the mood had become quite unsuitable for civilized mealtime.
They moved back into the living room. His robots followed and so did Daneel and Giskard, all finding their niches. (Mandamus had never remarked on Giskard, thought Gladia, but then, why should he? Giskard was quite old fashioned and even primitive, entirely unimpressive in comparison to Mandamus's beautiful specimens.)
Gladia took her seat and crossed her legs, quite aware that the form-fitting sheerness of the lower portion of her slacks flattered the still youthful appearance of her legs.
"May I know the reason for your wishing to see me, Dr. Mandamus?" she said, unwilling to delay matters any longer.
He said, "I have the bad habit of chewing medicated gum after meals as an aid to digestion. Would you object?"
Gladia said stiffly, "I would find it distracting."
(Being unable to chew might put him at a disadvantage. Besides, Gladia added to herself virtuously, at his age he shouldn't need anything to aid his digestion.)
Mandamus had a small oblong package partway out of his tunic's breast pocket. He shoved it back with no sign of disappointment and murmured, "Of course."
"I was asking, Dr. Mandamus, your reason for wishing to see me."
"Actually two reasons, Lady Gladia. One is a personal matter and one is a matter of state. Would you object to my taking up the personal matter first?"
"Let me say frankly, Dr. Mandamus, that I find it hard to imagine what personal matter there could be between us. You work at the Robotics Institute, don't you?"
"Yes, I do."
"And are close to Amadiro, I have been told."
"I have the honor of working with Doctor Amadiro," he said with faint emphasis.
(He's paying me back, thought Gladia, but I'm not taking it.)
She said, "Amadiro and I had an occasion for contact twenty decades ago and it was most unpleasant. I have had no occasion for any contact with him at any time since. Nor would I have had any contact with you, as a close associate of his, but that I was persuaded that the interview might be important. Personal matters, however, would surely not make this interview in the least important to me. Shall we proceed onward, then, to the matters of state?"
Mandamus's eyes dropped and a faint flush of something that might have been embarrassment came to his cheeks.