"But--"

"We shall be floating in this sphere with absolutely no occupation."

"I wish I'd known--"

He peered out of the manhole. "Look!" he said. "There's something
there!"

"Is there time?"

"We shall be an hour."

I looked out. It was an old number of _Tit-Bits_ that one of the men must
have brought. Farther away in the corner I saw a torn _Lloyd's News_. I
scrambled back into the sphere with these things. "What have you got?" I
said.

I took the book from his hand and read, "The Works of William
Shakespeare".

He coloured slightly. "My education has been so purely scientific--"
he said apologetically.

"Never read him?"

"Never."

"He knew a little, you know--in an irregular sort of way."