We lay on our stomachs on the living-room floor in a circle around our host, a skinny little man who said he'd been smoking O for 20 years.

The dasymeter consists of a two-armed lever or balance beam, on one arm of which is a hermetically sealed glass sphere of 3 litres capacity, while the other arm carries a balancing weight. The higher the percentage of carbonic anhydride contained in the gas to be examined, the higher will be its specific gravity, and consequently the greater its weight.

She still bore the scars of a very acrimonious divorce, which made her wary of new commitments.

a point-blank assertion