Casilia Tisalver opened her eyes wide. "A heatsinker? Not in my apartment."
"Why not? Besides, hell be coming to my room," said Seldon. "At fourteen hundred."
"I wont have it," said Mistress Tisalver. "This is what comes of going down to the heatsinks. Jirad was a fool."
"Not at all, Mistress Tisalver. We went at my request and I was fascinated. I must see this young man, since that is necessary to my scholarly work."
"Im sorry if it is, but I wont have it."
Dors Venabili raised her hand. "Hari, let me take care of this. Mistress Tisalver, if Dr. Seldon must see someone in his room this afternoon, the additional person naturally means additional rent. We understand that. For today, then, the rent on Dr. Seldons room will be doubled."
Mistress Tisalver thought about it. "Well, thats decent of you, but its not only the credits. Theres the neighbors to think of. A sweaty, smelly heatsinker--"
"I doubt that hell be sweaty and smelly at fourteen hundred, Mistress Tisalver, but let me go on. Since Dr. Seldon must see him, then if he cant see him here, hell have to see him elsewhere, but we cant run here and there. That would be too inconvenient. Therefore, what we will have to do is to get a room elsewhere. It wont be easy and we dont want to do it, but we will have to. So we will pay the rent through today and leave and of course we will have to explain to Master Hummin why we have had to change the arrangements that he so kindly made for us."
"Wait." Mistress Tisalvers face became a study of calculation. "We wouldnt like to disoblige Master Hummin ... or you two. How long would this creature have to stay?"
"Hes coming at fourteen hundred. He must be at work at sixteen hundred. He will be here for less than two hours, perhaps considerably less. We will meet him outside, the two of us, and br............