"No?" Dr. Haenlingen said.
"I'll try to—"
Dr. Haenlingen lifted a hand and brushed the words aside. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I am beginning to see that it doesn't matter."
"But—"
"All we can do now is wait," Dr. Haenlingen said. "We are—outplayed."
There was a little silence. Norma waited through it without moving.
"Would you like to have a lesson in psychology?" Dr. Haenlingen said in the graying room. "Would you like to learn a little, just a little, about your fellow man?"
Norma felt suddenly frightened. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," Dr. Haenlingen said. "Everything is moving along exactly as might have been predicted. If we had known what the Confederation planned, and exactly the timetable of their actions ... but we did not, and could not. Norma, listen to me."
The story she told was very simple. It took a fairly long time to tell.