Raych Seldon felt extraordinarily¹ contented², for it was the first dinner en famille that he had had in some months with the two people he thought of as his father and mother. He knew perfectly³ well that they were not his parents in any biological sense, but it didn't matter. He merely smiled at them with complete love.
    The surroundings were not as warm as they had been at Streeling in the old days, when their home had been small and intimate, a virtual gem⁴ in the larger setting of the University. Now, unfortunately, nothing could hide the grandeur⁵ of the First Minister's Palace suite⁶.
    Raych sometimes stared at himself in the mirror and wondered how it could be. He was not tall, only 163 centimeters in height, distinctly shorter than either parent. He was rather stocky but muscular-and not fat, with black hair and the distinctive⁷ Dahlite mustache that he kept as dark and as thick as possible.
    In the mirror he could still see the street urchin⁸ he had once been before the chanciest of great chances had dictated⁹ his meeting with Hari and Dors. Seldon had been much younger then and his appearance now made it plain that Raych himself was almost as old now as Seldon had been when they met. Amazingly, Dors had hardly changed at all. She was as sleek¹⁰ and fit as the day Raych had first showed Hari and Dors the way to Mother Rittah's in Billibotton. And he, Raych, born to poverty and misery

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