"What is it you want me to say? I don't feel much like talking—"
"Yet you speak so loud that the room fairly rocks with it. I wanted you to tell us why you did not agree with the answer just now rendered. It is, I feel, a good one. Talk."
"Then I agree, it is a good one." Smith did not want to get involved. He wanted to be a good, quietly efficient student. Nothing more. But he forgot that the instructor could read minds.
"You lie, Smith of Earth. I won't go into it any further, because it is your privilege if you want to lie. But you are not to listen for the remainder of this lecture. Do not listen."
Smith nodded, cursed himself mentally because he had made such a mess of things here at his very first lecture, and headed for the door.
"Smith of Earth! Just where under the red sun do you think you are going?"
"You told me not to listen, so—"
"I didn't say talk. Talk now."
"—so I'm leaving the room."
"No one leaves until the lecture has been concluded. Sit if you will, or stand, but stay here. And do not listen."