some of those present simply needed to feel they were being listened to ( they were n't ) ; others he was testing , gently , probing their advice , finding their prejudices and persuasions like feeling around a tooth with his tongue for cavities or cracks ; noting who was voluble , who was not , who spoke before he thought , and the reverse ; and noting , quite specifically , the small lie told by one quintus , when he had no need to lie , about his lateness ( and he had not , after all , been very late ) .