rity. There was no love because in order to love
someone or something you must feel that it is in some way superior to
that which is not loved. I'm not even sure I know what those terms
mean, because I'm not sure I ever thought anything was beautiful, I'm
not sure I ever loved anything. I only read about such things in books.
But I know I felt the emptiness inside me where those things should
have been.

"There was no morality, either. People did not refrain from stealing
because it was wrong, but simply because it was pointless to steal what
would be given to you if you asked for it. There was no right or wrong.

"We had a form of social contract that we called 'marriage,' but it
wasn't the same thing as marriage was in the old days. There was no
love. There used to be a crime called 'adultery,' but even the word had
gone out of use on the Earth I knew. Instead, it was considered
antisocial for a woman to refuse to give herself to other men; to do so
might indicate that she thought herself superior or thought her husband
to be superior to other men. The same thing applied to men in their
relationships with women other than their wives. Marriage was a social
contract that could be made or broken at the whim of the individual. It
served no purpose because it meant nothing, neither party gained
anything by the contract that they couldn't have had without it. But a
wedding was an excuse for a gala party at which the couple were the
center of attention. So the contract was entered into lightly for the
sake of a gay time for a while, then broken again so that the game
could be played with someone else--the game of Musical Bedrooms."

He stopped and looked down at the helpless Kerothi. "That doesn't mean
much to you, does it? In your society, women are chattel, to be owned,
bought, and sold. If you see a woman you want, you offer a price to her
father or brother or husband--whoever the owner might be. Then she's
yours until you sell her to another. Adultery is a very serious crime
on Kerothi, but only because it's an infringement of property rights.
There's not much love lost there, either, is there?

"I wonder if either of us knows what love is, Tallis?"

"I love my people," Tallis said grimly.

MacMaine was startled for a moment. He'd never thought about it that
way. "You're right, Tallis," he said at last. "You're right. We _do_
know. And because I loved the human race, in spite of its stagnation
and its spirit of to