"It's an adornment of speech," he said. "Like clothes."
With dinner over, Earl drifted toward the door after excusing himself and thanking the Glassmans. Basil followed him.
"I need someone to talk to—to help me, Basil," Earl said as they walked back toward the lab building. "Remember that test tube breaking? And the window pane?"
"How can I forget?" Basil said ruefully.
Quickly Earl outlined everything that had happened.
"What you should have done," Basil said in amazement, "is gone directly to Dr. Glassman with it. Now nobody will believe you. Even I find it hard to believe. You must have fallen hard, the way you want to keep her under lock and key."
"It's not that," Earl said. "Just a lot of little things. Like her repeating my name as if she knew all about me. And her refusing to say where she's from. And her knowledge of our language yet knowing absolutely nothing about our social customs."
"What about time travel?" Basil said.
"Time travel? That's absurd."