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assertion.”
    I held a sigh. “Mister Paulus.” They hated my use of English formality, but it worked, at least for me. “As I have explained a number of times in the course of the past few weeks, when you make a broad assertion, you must prove it with either example, fact, or logic. You have left this statement dangling in the breeze, so to speak.”
    “But, Professor, it is true that Speaker Taft’s failure to adequately capitalize the Environmental Subministry—”
    “I know, Mister Paulus. I spent considerable time in Columbia City, and a fair amount of it supervising the Environmental Subministry. You never explain how much funding would have been adequate and why, or the actual results of such underfunding. Did you mention any programs that were reduced? Or initiatives that were canceled? You just wrote that it contributed to the rise of Speaker Hartpence’s Reformed Tories. How? What demographic trends did the new Speaker tap? Did the president play a role as titular head of state? Was the environmental funding issue merely a political ploy between the two? What changes in funding have happened under the new government?”
    “I see, Doktor Eschbach. Thank you.” He nodded and walked to his desk in the rear of the classroom. His tone indicated that he hadn’t really the faintest idea of what I meant. Someone had told him, or he had read, that the environmental funding issue had led to the fall of the Taft government, and that was that. Black or white. It was in the book, so it must be true. Never mind about why it happened, or even, heaven forbid, if it might not be true. Thank God I only had him for Environmental Politics.
    But I supposed people in every country are like that. So long as the trains run on time and the lights go on when they press the switch plates, how many really understand the power base of their system? After all, who really cared that the presidency was the only remaining check on the power of the Speaker? Or that the only real tool the president had was his budget examiners and their ability to uncover blatant favoritism? Who cared that the Spazi obtained more and more real power every decade? After all, they didn’t really bother most people, just those involved in treasonous acts. But when the Speaker controlled both the Congress and the Spazi, and one defined treasonous acts and the other had the right to detain and punish such acts, that power could become very disturbing, as Elspeth and I had found out when I had applied for permission for her treatment in Vienna.
    By the time I had opened the windows, I was perspiring. I wiped my forehead on the soft linen handkerchief I carried mainly for that purpose and surveyed the room. About a dozen of my twenty-three students had arrived. All the men, except mister Jones, wore cravats, but not all wore jackets, and the women wore knee-length skirts or trousers. Most wore scarves.
    I opened the case and took out my notes, waiting for the rest of the class or the chimes of the post centre clock. I tried not to think of the president’s special assistant or the Spazi steamers, but I couldn’t escape the conviction that they were both waiting for me to make some sort of mistake.

CHAPTER FOUR

    L lysette had indicated rather clearly that she was tied up for the evening, although student previews would not last that late, but I certainly had no claim on her, not unless I wanted to formalize our relationship, and I did not feel all that comfortable about that at present. So I reclaimed the Stanley from the faculty car park as the post centre clock struck five and headed down Highland toward the square and home.
    After deciding against stopping for a case of ale from McArdles’, I turned past
Samaha’s and pulled up at the west side of the bridge to wait for another steamer, a bulky Reo, to finish crossing. For some reason I recalled the time in London when I’d driven a steam lorry. I suppose it was the waiting. You always wait in those