"Good morning, young man," said Joranum.

"Good morning, sir," said Raych.

"Please sit down, gentlemen," said Seldon. "May I offer you something to eat or drink?"

Joranum held up his hands in polite refusal. "No, sir. This is not a social call." He seated himself in the place indicated. "Though I hope there will be many such calls in the future."

"If this is to be about business, then let's begin."

"The news reached me, Professor Seldon, of the little incident that you have so kindly agreed to forget and I wondered why you took the chance of doing what you did. It was a risk, you must admit."

"I didn't think so, actually."

"But I did. So I took the liberty of finding out everything I could about you, Professor Seldon. You're an interesting man. From Helicon, I discovered."

"Yes, that's where I was born. The records are clear."

"And you've been here on Trantor for eight years."

"That is also a matter of public record."

"And you made yourself quite famous at the start by delivering a mathematical paper on-what do you call it?-psychohistory?"

Seldon shook his head very slightly. How often he had regretted that indiscretion. Of course, he had had no idea at the time that it was an indiscretion. He said, "A youthful enthusiasm. It came to nothing."

"Is that so?" Joranum looked around him with an air of pleased surprise. "Yet here you are, the head of the Mathematics Department at one of Trantor's greatest Universities, and only forty years old, I believe. I'm forty-two, by the way, so I don't look upon you as very old at all. You must be a very competent mathematician to be in this position."

Seldon shrugged. "I wouldn't care to make a judgment in that matter."

"Or you must have powerful friends."

"We would all like to have powerful friends, Mr. Joranum, but I think you will find none here. University professors rarely have powerful friends or, I sometimes think, friends of any kind." He smiled.