"I almost stayed away," he admitted.
"Because of me?"
"Had you seen the picture of you I conjured up," he sighed, and she laughed.
"And mine of you," she added. "I thought of you as a wrinkled old desert rat, hearing of your fortune."
"We wrinkle easily here on Mars," he smiled. "You'll not stay long enough to know." And his eyes, sweeping her lace-sheathed body, assured her she need not fear wrinkles at the moment.
She smiled. "We sail for Triton on my yacht tomorrow. There's just time for a visit to the Battan caves before I must return to N'Yott for the opening of the fall sessions."
"Those are dangerous parts," he warned. "Your party is very small."
"We have good men," she laughed, eyeing him curiously. "You know that area?"
"If I say I do, will you construe my answer aright?" was his cool rejoinder.
She rose to the bait. "Are you afraid?"