"I am sorry," Tragor heard himself replying. "I did not intend—"
"You did not intend. You are sorry. What a pitifully weak excuse that is! We should not have gone searching for women at all at so crucial an hour. The success of this experiment is vital to us. We may be needed to silence the man if the experiment is not a success. If you were not my superior I might be tempted—"
"Do not allow yourself to be tempted, Sull," Tragor heard himself saying, his bitterness and frustration giving way to rage. "I warn you. I am in no mood to countenance insubordination. I would be quite capable of silencing you, in a way that would cause you exquisite torment."
"I am not afraid of you, Tragor. My lineage is almost as high as your own. I have a right to speak my mind."
"Speak it then, and let us be done with it. I know where my duty lies. I have not neglected it in any way."
"You are trembling so I am concerned for your sanity. You are thinking of that woman and you are thinking of her compulsively and that is bad. I would never allow a woman to hold the whip hand. They must be made to obey."
"You have never been in love, Sull. You cannot force a woman to love you."
"You can force her to respond."
"Sull, there is something about you that I do not like. I refuse to listen to you. We have come to watch the experiment. Let us watch."
The two Martians approached the tele-communications screen and stood before it. The man named David Loring was in the room of his beloved staring about him now, his eyes on the unmade bed and a slipper that she had dropped in her haste to leave the apartment. He was standing very still, his image very sharp on the lighted screen.