As, however, he had pressed me to be quick, I knocked at the door, and on his calling out, "Come in," I entered.
To my intense surprise, there was no one with him.

He was quite alone, and on the table opposite him was what I knew at once from the description to be a phonograph.

I had never seen one, and was much interested.
"I hope I did not keep you waiting," I said, "but I stayed at the door as I heard you talking, and thought there was someone with you." "Oh," he replied with a smile, "I was only entering my diary." "Your diary ?" I asked him in surprise.
"Yes," he answered.

"I keep it in this." As he spoke he laid his hand on the phonograph.

I felt quite excited over it, and blurted out, "Why, this beats even shorthand! May I hear it say something ?" "Certainly," he replied with alacrity, and stood up to put it in train for speaking.