"Vene mecum," she bade him, retreating into the glade--what was left
of it after his ship burned a scar into it. She ran lightly, so as to
give the impression that if he turned, only so far as to pick up the
weapon on the ground by his shirt, she would disappear.

"I follow," he said in her own language, and she stopped, surprise
tangling her like a net. For she had been taught that Men speak only
New-language in our time, all soft tongues having been scorned to
death.

She should not have stopped. He looked back toward his gun. "Wait a
moment," he said. His "a"'s were flat and harsh, his words awkwardly
sequenced.

"Come with me," she said, and ran off again. She had been caught off
guard.

Would he follow her? "Wait!" he cried, hesitated, and came after her
again. "I want to get my gun." He reached for Juba's hand.

She shrank back from him. "Mulier enim sum." Would he get the force of
the particle? What could he fear from a mere woman?

When he had followed her far enough, when he had gone as far as he
would, for fear of losing his way from his ship, she let him take her
hand.

"Terran sum," he said. And then, with meaning, "Homino sum."

"Then you are, naturally, hungry," Juba said. "You have no need to
come armed. Let me take you to my home. There are only my sisters and
I and the mother."

"Yes," he said, and took her other hand.

She blushed, because he was strangely attractive, and because the
thought came to her that his ways were gentle, and that if he spoke a
soft tongue, perhaps he was not like other Men.

Rule c--They are all alike.

"Come," Juba said, turning, "We are not far from the cottages."

* * * * *

She watched, during the meal, to see how he impressed the sisters and
the mother. The little sisters--all bouncy blond curls and silly with
laughter--their reaction to everything was excitement. And the
mother--how could she seem so different from her daughters when they
were so completely of her? They had no genes but her genes. And yet,
there she sat, so dignified, offering a generous hospitality, but so
cold Juba could feel it at the other end of the table. So cold--but
the Man would not know, could not read the thin line of her taut lips
and the faint lift at the edges of her eyes.

Juba brought him back to the ship that night, knowing he would not
leave the planet.

"Mother," Juba said, kneeling before the mother and clasping her knees
in supplic