ht when you can't have babies
normally. But most women have an emotional bias towards having
their husband's children. And there is only one way to find out
if this is possible."

Lea's eyes widened. "Are you suggesting that your girls see if a man
can father children _before_ considering marriage?"

"Of course. Otherwise Anvhar would have been depopulated centuries
ago. Therefore the woman does the choosing. If she is interested in
a man, she says so. If she is not interested, the man would never
think of suggesting anything. It's a lot different from other
planets, but so is our planet Anvhar. It works well for us, which
is the only test that applies."

"Just about the opposite of Earth," Lea told him, dropping the apple
core into a dish and carefully licking the tips of her fingers. "I
guess you Anvharians would describe Earth as a planetary hotbed of
sexuality. The reverse of your system, and going full blast all the
time. There are far too many people there for comfort. Birth control
came late and is still being fought--if you can possibly imagine
that. There are just too many of the archaic religions still around,
as well as crackbrained ideas that have been long entrenched in
custom. The world's overcrowded. Men, women, children, a boiling mob
wherever you look. And all of the physically mature ones seem to be
involved in the Great Game of Love. The male is always the
aggressor. Not physically--at least not often--and women take the
most outrageous kinds of flattery for granted. At parties there are
always a couple of hot breaths of passion fanning your neck. A girl
has to keep her spike heels filed sharp."

"She has to _what_?"

"A figure of speech, Brion. Meaning you fight back all the time,
if you don't want to be washed under by the flood."

"Sounds rather"--Brion weighed the word before he said it, but
could find none other suitable--"repellent."

"From your point of view, it would be. I'm afraid we get so used to
it that we even take it for granted. Sociologically speaking...."
She stopped and looked at Brion's straight back and almost rigid
posture. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in an unspoken _oh_
of sudden realization.

"I'm being a fool," she said. "You weren't speaking generally at
all! You had a very specific subject in mind. Namely _me_!"

"Please, Lea, you must understand...."

"But I do!" She laughed. "All the time I thought you were being a
frigid and hard-hearted lump of ice