"You are an extraordinary person, Sarakoff," I observed, after watching him a moment. "Will you answer me a rather intimate question?"
"Certainly."
"What precisely do you mean when you say you intend to make the charming lady marry you?"
"Precisely what I say. She loves fame. So far I have been unsuccessful, because she does not think I am famous enough."
"How do you intend to remedy that?"
He stared at me in amazement.
"Do you think that any people have ever been so famous as you and I will be in a few days?"
I looked away and studied the bright throng of visitors in the hall.
"In a few days?" I asked. "Are you not a trifle optimistic? Don't you think that it will take months before the possibilities and meaning of the germ are properly realized?"
"Rubbish," exclaimed Sarakoff. "You are a confirmed pessimist. You are impossible, Harden. You are a mass of doubts and apprehensions. Ah, here is Leonora at last. Is she not marvellous?"