Daneel said, "An Auroran gentleman may find it necessary to utter threats, but if so, he would do it in a gentlemanly manner."
"As Amadiro did. It is, then, the manner and not the content of speech that marks the gentleman. But then, Daneel, you are a robot and therefore can not really criticize a human being, can you?"
Daneel said, "It would be difficult for me to do so. But may I ask a question, Partner Elijah? Why did you ask permission to bring friend Giskard and me into this room? It had seemed to me that you were reluctant, earlier, to believe you were in danger. Have you now decided that you are not safe except in our presence?"
"No, not at all, Daneel. I am now quite convinced that I am not in danger and have not been."
"Yet there was a distinctly suspicious cast about your actions, when you entered this room, Partner Elijah. You searched it."
Baley said, "Of course! I said I am not in danger, but I do not say there is no danger."
"I do not think I see the distinction, Partner Elijah," said Daneel.
"We will discuss it later, Daneel. I am still not certain as to whether this room is bugged or not."
Baley was by now quite done. He said, "Well, Daneel, I've been leisurely about this; I haven't rushed at all. Now I'm ready to go out again and I wonder if Amadiro is still waiting for us after all this time or whether he has delegated an underling to do the rest of the job of showing us out. After all, Amadiro is a busy man, and cannot spend all day with me. What do you think, Daneel?"
"It would be more logical if Dr. Amadiro had delegated the task."
"And you, Giskard? What do you think?"
"I agree with friend Daneel, though it is my experience that human beings do not always make what would seem the logical response."
Baley said, "For my part, I suspect, Amadiro is waiting for us quitter patiently. If something has driven him to waste this much time on us, I rather think that the driving force - whatever it might be - has not yet weakened."
"I do not know what might be the driving force you speak of, Partner Elijah," said Daneel.
"Nor I, Daneel," said Baley, "which bothers me a great deal. But let us open the door now and see."
59
Amadiro was waiting outside the door for them, precisely where Baley had left him. He smiled at them, showing no sign of impatience. Baley could not resist shooting a quiet I-told-you-so glance at Daneel, who responded with bland impassivity.
Amadiro said, "I rather regretted, Mr. Baley, that you had not left Giskard outside when you entered the Personal. I might have known him in times past, when Fastolfe and I were on better terms but somehow never did. Fastolfe was my teacher once, you know."
"Was he?" said Baley. "I didn't know that, as a matter of fact."
"No reason you should, unless you had been told - and, in the short time you've been on the planet, you can scarcely have had time to learn much in the way of this sort of trivia, I suppose. - Come now, it has occurred to me that you can scarcely think me hospitable if I do not take advantage of your being at the Institute to show you around."
"Really," said Baley, stiffening a bit. "I must - "
"I insist," said Amadiro, with something of a note of the imperious entering his voice. "You arrived on Aurora yesterday morning and I doubt that you will be staying on the planet much longer. This may be the only chance you will ever have of getting a glimpse of a modern laboratory doing research work on robotics."
He linked arms with Baley and continued to speak in familiar terms. ("Prattled" was the term that occurred to the astonished Baley.)
"You've washed," said Amadiro. "You've taken care of your needs. There may be other roboticists here whom you will wish to question and I would welcome that, since I am determined to show I have put no barriers in your way during the short time in which you will yet be permitted to conduct your investigation. In fact, there is no reason you can't have dinner with us."
Giskard said, "If I may interrupt, sir - "
"You may not!" said Amadiro with unmistakable firmness and the robot fell silent.
Amadiro said, "My dear Mr. Baley, I understand these robots. Who should know them better? - Except for the unfortunate Fastolfe, of course. Giskard, I am sure, was going to remind you of some appointment, some promise, some business - and there is no point in any of that. Since the investigation is about over, I promise you, none of what he was going to remind you of will have any significance. Let us forget all such nonsense and, for a brief time, be friends.
"You must understand, my good Mr. Baley," he went on, "that I am quite an aficionado of Earth and its culture. It is not the most popular of subjects on Aurora, but I find it fascinating. I am particularly interested in Earth's past history, the days when it had a hundred languages and Interstellar Standard had not yet been developed. - May I compliment you, by the way, on your own handling of Interstellar?
"This way, this way," he said, turning a corner. "We'll be coming to the pathway-simulation room, which has its own weird beauty, and we may have a mock-up in operation. Quite symphonic, actually. - But I was talking about your handling of Interstellar. It is one of the many Auroran superstitions concerning Earth, that Earthpeople speak an all, but incomprehensible version of Interstellar. When the show about you was produced, there were many who said that the actors could not be Earthpeople because they could be understood, yet I can understand you." He smiled as he said that.
"I've tried reading Shakespeare," he continued with a confidential air, "but I can't read him in the original, of course, and the translation is curiously flat. I can't help but believe that the fault lies with the translation and not with Shakespeare. I do better with Dickens and Tolstoy, perhaps because that is prose, although the names of the characters are, in both cases, virtually unpronounceable to me.