Yet the following day found Hari Seldon back in the library. For one thing, there was his promise to Hummin. He had promised to try and he couldnt very well make it a halfhearted process. For another, he owed something to himself too. He resented having to admit failure. Not yet, at least. Not while he could plausibly¹ tell himself he was following up leads. So he stared at the list of reference book-films he had not yet checked through and tried to decide which of the unappetizing number had the slightest chance of being useful to him. He had about decided² that the answer was "none of the above" and saw no way out but to look at samples of each when he was startled by a gentle tap against the alcove³ wall.
Seldon looked up and found the embarrassed face of Lisung Randa peering at him around the edge of the alcove opening. Seldon knew Randa, had been introduced to him by Dors, and had dined with him (and with others) on several occasions. Randa, an instructor⁴ in psychology⁵, was a little man, short and plump, with a round cheerful face and an almost perpetual smile. He had a sallow complexion⁶ and the narrowed eyes so characteristic of people on millions of worlds. Seldon knew that appearance well, for there were many of the great mathematicians⁸ who had borne it, and he had frequently seen their holograms. Yet on Helicon he had never seen one of these Easterners. (By tradition they were called that, though no one knew why; and the Easterners themselves were said to resent the term to some degree, but again no one knew why.)
"Theres millions of us here on Trantor," Randa had said, smiling with no trace of self-consciousness, when Seldon, on first meeting him, had not been able to repress all trace of startled surprise. "Youll also find lots of Southerners--dark skins, tightly curled hair. Did you ever see one?"
"Not on Helicon," muttered Seldon.
"All Westerners on Helicon, eh? How dull! But it doesnt matter. Takes all kinds." (He left Seldon wondering at the fact that there were Easterners, Southerners, and Westerners, but no Northerners. He had tried finding an answer to why that might be in his reference searches and had not succeeded.) And now Randas good-natured face was looking at him with an almost ludicrous look of concern. He said, "Are you all right, Seldon?"

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