"I guess you still read as much as ever? Don said you always were a great reader."
Uncomfortably, he stood up.
She put the books on a low serving table, moistened her lips to make them glistening red. "Sit down, Jimmy!"
He still stood.
"Jimmy!" she said in mock anger. "Sit down! Goodness, it's good to have a fellow Earthman to talk to. I was so busy when you came by the other time, we scarcely had a minute to talk. I'd just got here, you remember.... Well, I'm settled now, so we'll just have to have a nice, long talk."
He shifted on his feet.
"I don't suppose you've heard from Don?" Her voice was strained, almost desperate. "Isn't it the oddest thing, him knowing you and me, and both of us right here?"
"He told me to write how you were getting along?"
"... Oh."
He smiled without humor and felt like an old man. He wanted to explain how he had looked forward to seeing a person from his own planet again. Now he wanted to remind her of the girl he remembered: When she had just arrived, still unpacking, eager to start as a junior secretary for the League.