← I had already essayed to write, and was immensely keen on the mot juste, that Holy Grail of the period. 🔊
← I used to keep it lying carelessly on the table in my room, and whenever a friend took it up and asked what it was about, I would say: "Oh, it's rather a remarkable book. 🔊
← I had hoped that when next I met the poet I could congratulate him on having made a stir, for I fancied he was not so sure of his intrinsic greatness as he seemed. 🔊
← But on the evening of that day Soames went, too. 🔊
← You wish to be in the reading-room just as it will be on the afternoon of June 3, 1997? 🔊
← I concentrated my eyes on the paper. 🔊
← I found it fallen on the floor, and handed it to him. 🔊
← And "labud”—what on earth was that? 🔊
← You realize that the reading-room into which Soames was projected by the devil was in all respects precisely as it will be on the afternoon of June 3, 1997. 🔊
← You realize, therefore, that on that afternoon, when it comes round, there the selfsame crowd will be, and there Soames will be, punctually, he and they doing precisely what they did before. 🔊