"True," Ned concedes, with good humor, "I guess it depends on how much credit you're willing to give the people this imagined spy is trying to evade. Most people are pretty sadly content not to think things through even as much as you just did. They judge based on appearances without stopping to wonder if their preconceived notions are true. I don't think I have to tell you that."

Certainly not based on some of the stories that Ginsberg has told him about moronic clients, anyway.

"And as for evading people who are smart enough to think that a man seems too average, well, wouldn't those people be smart enough to have other methods of detecting our spy than on how shifty he looks? A disguise shouldn't be enough to fool someone as clever as that, so why bother? A real spy would have to have other methods at the ready to get around the smart people, and would have to put on a show of conformity for the average observer."