"However," she said, "I am Rhinegallis, King's sister." Then she laughed. "And that," she said, "is the only thing you learned this evening!"
"Oh, I'd not say that," said Carroll.
"Then tell me," she said amusedly, "how you justify yourself."
Carroll paused. Somehow it seemed normal to him that he should not care to appear weak or helpless in front of a woman, even an alien woman. Yet the truth of the matter was that Carroll was a complete captive and at the mercy of this bunch.
Whatever he did he did at their sufferance. There was little to be gained by quiet ridicule in explaining that he had taken a recording by sheer blind guesswork because there was no other way.
There was little to be gained but open ridicule to be forced to admit to this woman that he, James Forrest Carroll, reputed to be one of the Solar System's foremost physicists, was in a position seldom if ever occupied by any human being.
He knew and he knew that he knew, but he knew not what he knew!
He laughed helplessly. "Son lava tin quil norwham enectramic colvay si tin mer vo si—"
"Very lucid," she replied in English. "So in the course of the evening, James Forrest Carroll has a complete course in our science—in our language-pattern in our manner of thinking. And," she laughed merrily, "of none of which he has the slightest comprehension.