A quick, girlish cough sounded behind him.
"——to my private cabin in this cyah," the professor continued, with no change in countenance or voice, "where I will join you, and where we will find liquid refreshment."
Kibosh did not dare refuse him, and I came without being asked.
"It's a glorious exercise, suh," said the professor to me, in the private cabin.
"In moderation, yes," I answered.
"May I inquiuh to what you-all are referrin'?" he asked haughtily.
"Why, to this," I answered, tapping my glass.
The professor grew more stiff. "I referred to simplifyin' the spellin' of our language," he said.
"A glorious exercise?" I repeated vaguely.