"Yes."
"I guessed it." She laughed in her low contralto. "But spacemen aren't the only ones who drink that watered-down whiskey."
"I know. But this time it is one."
She smiled again. "Is Cinnabar so inhospitable?" she asked.
"To strangers it seems so."
"To me it seems quite normal. It makes the rest of the solar system sound like a very exciting place."
"Born on Mercury?"
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I was born on Venus. I spent four years on Terra before my folks brought me to Mercury. But my last space trip took place when I was nine. Tell me, what is New York like?"
"Buildings and people and mad rushing around. Any change in the last hundred years has been for taller buildings, more people and a higher velocity of humanity. But anybody can find anything he wants somewhere in New York, if he has the money to buy it."
She smiled calmly. "I'll show you that Cinnabar is not an inhospitable place," she said. "You may take me to dinner if you wish."