"Miss Taganova, would you care to join me in the bar for a drink?"
They all looked up at him in astonishment.
"But I've just finished dinner," she said.
He waited, uncertainly. At last Professor Larrabee pointed to the unoccupied chair.
"Perhaps you'd care to join us, instead?"
No one else spoke, and he sat down nervously. Conversation had stopped, and at last he broke out with explosive force.
"I wish Captain Evans would speed up this ship. It feels as if we'd been on the way forever. And still three weeks to go!"
"Do you find three weeks so long a time?" asked the professor.
"It seems like eternity. I wish something would happen. Why can't we have a little excitement?"
"Couldn't you find any more banks to break today?" Alan drawled. "No gambles on the stock exchange?"