The Emperor stared at him. “After what I’ve been telling you, Hari? I have no credits. —Oh yes, there’re credits to run this establishment, of course, but in order to get them I have to face my seventy-five hundred legislators. If you think I can go to them and say, ‘I want credits for my friend, Hari Seldon,’ and if you think I’ll get one quarter of what I ask for in anything less than two years, you’re crazy. It won’t happen.”
He shrugged and said, more gently, “Don’t get me wrong, Hari. I would like to help you if I could. I would particularly like to help you for the sake of your granddaughter. Looking at her makes me feel as though I should give you all the credits you would like—but it can’t be done.”
Seldon said, “Agis, if I don’t get funding, psychohistory will go down the drain—after nearly forty years.”
“It’s come to nothing in nearly forty years, so why worry?”
“Agis,” said Seldon, “there’s nothing more I can do now. The assaults on me were precisely because I’m a psychohistorian. People consider me a predictor of destruction.”
The Emperor nodded. “You’re bad luck, Raven Seldon. I told you this earlier.”
Seldon stood up wretchedly. “I’m through, then.”
Wanda stood, too, next to Seldon, the top of her head reaching her grandfather’s shoulder. She gazed fixedly at the Emperor.
As Hari turned to go, the Emperor said, “Wait. Wait. There’s a little verse I once memorized:
“What does it mean?” asked a dispirited Seldon.
“It means that the Empire is steadily deteriorating and falling apart, but that doesn’t keep some individuals from growing rich. Why not turn to some of our wealthy entrepreneurs? They don’t have legislators and can, if they wish, simply sign a credit voucher.”
Seldon stared. “I’ll try that.”
22
“Mr. Bindris,” said Hari Seldon, reaching out his hand to shake the other’s. “I am so glad to be able to see you. It was good of you to agree to see me.”
“Why not?” said Terep Bindris jovially. “I know you well. Or, rather, I know
“That’s pleasant. I take it you’ve heard of psychohistory, then.”
“Oh yes, what intelligent person hasn’t? Not that I
“My granddaughter, Wanda.”
“A very pretty young woman.” He beamed. “Somehow I feel I’d be putty in her hands.”
Wanda said, “I think you exaggerate, sir.”
“No, really. Now, please, sit down and tell me what it is I can do for you.” He gestured expansively with his arm, indicating that they be seated on two overstuffed, richly brocaded chairs in front of the desk at which he sat. The chairs, like the ornate desk, the imposing carved doors which had slid back noiselessly at their arrival signal, and the gleaming obsidian floor of Bindris’s vast office, were of the finest quality. And, although his surroundings were impressive—and imposing—Bindris himself was not. The slight cordial man would not be taken, at first glance, for one of Trantor’s leading financial powerbrokers.
“We’re here, sir, at the Emperor’s suggestion.”
“The Emperor?”
“Yes, he could not help us, but he thought a man like you might be able to do so. The question, of course, is credits.”
Bindris’s face fell. “Credits?” he said. “I don’t understand.”
“Well,” said Seldon, “for nearly forty years, psychohistory has been supported by the government. However, times change and the Empire is no longer what it was.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“The Emperor lacks the credits to support us or, even if he did have the credits, he couldn’t get the request for funding past the Legislature. He recommends, therefore, that I see businesspeople who, in the first place, still have credits and, in the second place, can simply write out a credit voucher.”
There was a longish pause and Bindris finally said, “The Emperor, I’m afraid, knows nothing about business. —How many credits do you want?”
“Mr. Bindris, we’re talking about an enormous task. I’m going to need several million.”
“Several
“Yes, sir.”
Bindris frowned. “Are we talking about a loan here? When do you expect to be able to pay it back?”
“Well, Mr. Bindris, I can’t honestly say I ever expect to be able to pay it back. I’m looking for a gift.”
“Even if I wanted to give you the credits—and let me tell you, for some strange reason I very much want to do so—I couldn’t. The Emperor may have his Legislature, but I have my Board members. I can’t make a gift of that sort without the Board’s permission and they’ll never grant it.”
“Why not? Your firm is enormously wealthy. A few million would mean nothing to you.”
“That sounds good,” said Bindris, “but I’m afraid that the firm is in a state of decline right now. Not sufficiently to bring us into serious trouble, but enough to make us unhappy. If the Empire is in a state of decay, different individual parts of it are decaying, too. We are in no position to hand out a few million. —I’m truly sorry.”
Seldon sat there silently and Bindris seemed unhappy. He shook his head at last and said, “Look, Professor Seldon, I would really like to help you out, particularly for the sake of the young lady you have with you. It just can’t be done. —However, we’re not the only firm in Trantor. Try others, Professor. You may have better luck elsewhere.”
“Well,” said Seldon, raising himself to his feet with an effort, “we shall try.”
23
Wanda’s eyes were filled with tears, but the emotion they represented was not sorrow but fury.
“Grandpa,” she said, “I don’t understand it. I simply don’t understand it. We’ve been to four different firms. Each one was ruder and nastier to us than the one before. The fourth one just kicked us out. And since then, no one will let us in.”
“It’s no mystery, Wanda,” said Seldon gently. “When we saw Bindris, he didn’t know what we were there for and he was perfectly friendly until I asked for a gift of a few million credits. Then he was a great deal less friendly. I imagine the word went out as to what we wanted and each additional time there was less friendliness until now, when people won’t receive us at all. Why should they? They’re not going to give us the credits we need, so why waste time with us?”
Wanda’s anger turned on herself. “And what did I do? I just sat there. Nothing.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Seldon. “Bindris was affected by you. It seems to me that he really wanted to give me the credits, largely because of you. You were pushing him and accomplishing something.”
“Not nearly enough. Besides, all he cared about was that I was pretty.”
