eto demerzel laughed.

it was not the first time. he sat there, with hari seldon and dors venabili in a tap-free room, and, every once in a while, at a signal from hari, he would laugh. sometimes he leaned back and laughed uproariously, but seldon shook his head. "that would never sound convincing."

so demerzel smiled and then laughed with dignity and seldon made a face. "i'm stumped," he said. "it's no use trying to tell you funny stories. you get the point only intellectually. you will simply have to memorize the sound."

dors said, "use a holographic laughtrack."

"no! that would never be demerzel. that's a bunch of idiots being paid to yak. it's not what i want. try again, demerzel."

demerzel tried again until seldon said, "all right, then, memorize that sound and reproduce it when you're asked the question. you've got to look amused. you can't make the sound of laughing, however proficient, with a grave face. smile a little, just a little. pull back the corner of your mouth." slowly demerzel's mouth widened into a grin. "not bad. can you make your eyes twinkle?"

"what do you mean, 'twinkle,"' said dors indignantly. "no one makes their eyes twinkle. that's a metaphorical expression."

"no, it's not," said seldon. "there's the hint of tears in the eye-sadness, joy, surprise, whatever-and the reflection of light from that hint of fluid is what does it."

"well, do you seriously expect demerzel to produce tears?"

and demerzel said, matter-of-factly, "my eyes do produce tears for general cleansing-never in excess. perhaps, though, if i imagine my eyes to be slightly irritated-"

"try it," said seldon. "it can't hurt."

and so it was that when the talk on subetheric holovision was over and the words were streaking out to millions of worlds at thousands of times the effective speed of light words that were grave, matter-of-fact, informative, and without rhetorical embellishment-and that discussed everything but robots-demerzel declared himself ready to answer questions.

he did not have to wait long. the very first question was: "mr. first minister, are you a robot?"

demerzel simply stared calmly and let the tension build. then he smiled, his body shook slightly, and he laughed. it was not a loud uproarious laugh, but it was a rich one, the laugh of someone enjoying a moment of fantasy. it was infectious. the audience tittered and then laughed along with him.

demerzel waited for the laughter to die down and then, eyes twinkling, said, "must i really answer that? is it necessary to do so?" he was still smiling as the screen darkened.