"When you've tried to go home through one and not wound up there, it's hard not to wonder." Rosie hopes she doesn't look as disappointed as she feels, hearing that this Professor Lyall hadn't any experience of his own with something like the doorway to Anterwold--though the idea that he at least came from somewhere with theories about it was encouraging. Perhaps his world simply hadn't gotten as far along as hers had. There was hardly any shame in that; she hadn't even known such things were possible until that day in Lytten's cellar.

"'Partners in a mystery' sounds awfully like something out of Agatha Christie," she says, shaking his hand. "Rosie Wilson. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Professor."