the doctor was delighted.

"ive never seen a case of exposure," he explained. "one doesnt get exposed on trantor."

"that may be," said dors coldly, "and im happy you have the chance to experience this novelty, but does it mean that you do not know how to treat dr. seldon?"

the doctor, an elderly man with a bald head and a small gray mustache, bristled. "of course, i do. exposure cases on the outer worlds are common enough--an everyday affair--and ive read a great deal about them." treatment consisted in part of an antiviral serum and the use of a microwave wrapping.

"this ought to take care of it," the doctor said. "on the outer worlds, they make use of much more elaborate equipment in hospitals, but we dont have that, of course, on trantor. this is a treatment for mild cases and im sure it will do the job."

dors thought later, as seldon was recovering without particular injury, that it was perhaps because he was an outworlder that he had survived so well. dark, cold, even snow were not utterly strange to him. a trantorian probably would have died in a similar case, not so much from physical trauma as from psychic shock.

she was not sure of this, of course, since she herself was not a trantorian either.

and, turning her mind away from these thoughts, she pulled up a chair near to haris bed and settled down to wait.