around the band.
Not an instant was given them for preparation.

The thing had happened with the abruptness of a transformation scene at a theatre.

Condy's knock had evoked a situation.

Speech was stricken from their mouths.
For a moment they were bereft even of action, and stood there on the threshold, staring open-mouthed and open-eyed at the sudden reappearance of their "matrimonial object." Condy was literally dumb; in the end it was Blix who tided them over the crisis.
"We were just going by--just taking a walk," she explained, "and we thought we'd like to see the station.

Is it all right?
Can we look around ?" "Why, of course," assented the Captain with great cordiality.