Asimov's Foundation

Haut Rodric had attended with glazed eye to Pirenne's lecture during the "inspection tour" of the Encyclopedia Building. With polite and vacant smile, he had listened to the latter's rapid patter as they passed through the vast storehouses of reference films and the numerous projection rooms.

If Hardin found himself bored by the afternoon and evening that followed, he had at least the satisfaction of realizing that Pirenne and Haut Rodric having met with loud and mutual protestations of esteem and regard were detesting each other's company a good deal more.

He remained thoughtfully silent during the rest of the slow way to Cyclopedia Square.

  "under the direct control of the Emperor." There was a faint emphasis upon the last phrase that seemed to disconcert the sub-prefect.

  "Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?"

Haut Rodric's eyebrows lifted. "And your leader – the man I am to meet?" "You mean Dr. Pirenne? Yes! He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees – and a personal representative of the Emperor." "Doctor? No other title? A scholar? And he rates above the civil authority?" "Why, certainly," replied Hardin, amiably. "We're all scholars more or less. After all, we're not so much a world as a scientific foundation – under the direct control of the Emperor."There was a faint emphasis upon the last phrase that seemed to disconcert the sub-prefect.

"A strange world! You have no peasantry?" Hardin reflected that it didn't require a great deal of acumen to tell that his eminence was indulging in a bit of fairly clumsy pumping. He replied casually, "No – nor nobility."

In our short history we have had but few members of the higher nobility visiting our poor planet.Hence, our enthusiasm. "It is certain that "higher nobility" did not recognize irony when he heard it.

"And this city is all your world?"

Sub-prefect Anselm received the cheers with the complaisant indifference of a soldier and a nobleman.

if Hardin noted the barest bulge at Haut Rodric's shoulder, he prudently said nothing.

With a tight smile and a low bow, the sub-prefect had flipped his blaster from its holster and presented it to Hardin butt first. Hardin returned the compliment with, a blaster specifically borrowed for the occasion. Friendship and good will were thus established

Anselm haut Rodric – "haut" itself signifying noble blood -Sub-prefect of Pluema and Envoy Extraordinary of his Highness of Anacreon- plus half a dozen other titles was met by Salvor Hardin at the spaceport with all the imposing ritual of a state occasion.