"I'm afraid 'affording' is something I'm not likely to manage any time soon," Lyall admits ruefully. "I know next to nothing about the technology here, though I have at least learned how to question the Vee Aye."

He still says it as if it's a word unto itself rather than an abbreviation, and it probably sounds a bit silly.

"I know so few people here, I cannot imagine finding a roommate without it being a completely blind sort of affair." And of course it won't occur to him to offer to her. She's a young lady he's only just met. It wouldn't be appropriate to put himself forward like that. He does, however, add an introduction: "Professor Randolph Lyall, originally of London, eighteen seventy-five. How do you do?"