He nodded his head. "Very well memorized. Almost perfectly pronounced."
"Not at all memorized，" said Bliss warmly. "Fallom composed this itself and asked if it would be possible to recite it to you. I didn"t even know what Fallom would say till I heard it said."
Trevize forced a smile， "In that case， very good indeed." He noticed Bliss avoided pronouns when she could.
Bliss turned to Fallom and said， "I told you Trevize would like it. Now go to Pel and you can have some more reading if you wish."
Fallom ran off， and Bliss said， "It"s really astonishing how quickly Fallom is picking up Galactic. The Solarians must have a special aptitude for languages. Think how Bander spoke Galactic merely from hearing it on hyperspatial communications. Those brains may be remarkable in ways other than energy transduction."
Trevize grunted.
Bliss said， "Don"t tell me you still don"t like Fallom."
"I neither like nor dislike. The creature simply makes me uneasy. For one thing， it"s a grisly feeling to be dealing with a hermaphrodite."
Bliss said， "Come， Trevize， that"s ridiculous. Fallom is a perfectly acceptable living creature. To a society of hermaphrodites， think how disgusting you and I must seem males and females generally. Each is half of a whole and， in order to reproduce， there must be a temporary and clumsy union."
"Do you object to that， Bliss？"
"Don"t pretend to misunderstand. I am trying to view us from the hermaphroditic standpoint. To them， it must seem repellent in the extreme；to us， it seems natural. So Fallom seems repellent to you， but that"s just a shortsighted parochial reaction."
"Frankly，" said Trevize， "it"s annoying not to know the pronoun to use in connection with the creature. It impedes thought and conversation to hesitate forever at the pronoun."
"But that"s the fault of our language，" said Bliss， "and not of Fallom. No human language has been devised with hermaphroditism in mind. And I"m glad you brought it up， because I"ve been thinking about it myself. Saying `it，" as Bander itself insisted on doing，is no solution. That is a pronoun intended for objects to which sex is irrelevant， and there is no pronoun at all for objects that are sexually active in both senses. Why not just pick one of the pronouns arbitrarily，then？ I think of Fallom as a girl. She has the high voice of one， for one thing， and she has the capacity of producing young， which is the vital definition of femininity. Pelorat has agreed； why don"t you do so，too？ Let it be `she" and `her.""
Trevize shrugged. "Very well. It will sound peculiar to point out that she has testicles， but very well."
Bliss sighed. "You do have this annoying habit of trying to turn everything into a joke， but I know you are under tension and I"ll make allowance for that. Just use the feminine pronoun for Fallom， please."
"I will." Trevize hesitated， then， unable to resist， said， "Fallom seems more your surrogate-child every time I see you together. Is it that you want a child and don"t think Janov can give you one？"
Bliss"s eyes opened wide. "He"s not there for children！ Do you think I use him as a handy device to help me have a child？ It is not time for me to have a child， in any case. And when it is time， it will have to be a Gaian child， something for which Pel doesn"t qualify."